When Worlds Collide
by Evolution Legacy
Summary: An epic story that will include all current characters from LOL (as of the Jinx patch). Main character is OC, but that makes things more interesting. What will happen as worlds collide in this story loaded with action, adventure, and a little romance? (Rated M for violence, language, and potential sexual content) (No characters are tagged as it will eventually include all of them)
1. Prologue - United we Fall

**Dreams**

The sunset was beautiful; a perfect orange backdrop behind the skyline. Those on ground leave, in the streets amidst the roaring traffic couldn't see how majestic it was. But a boy and a girl sitting on the ledge of a rooftop could bask in its glory.

"It's amazing!" The girl gasped with awe.

"I should have brought a camera..." The boy muttered, chastising himself for being unable to capture this moment.

The girl shook her head, "It's ok, we'll just capture it in our memories!"

The boy looked at his sister, "That's such a girl thing to say!"

The girl looked back at her brother, playfully sticking her tongue out. "You're just upset I thought of it first!"

"Am not!"

"Am so!"

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then burst out laughing. Together, the twins watched the sunset, both captivated by its beauty.

"Wow..." The boy whispered to himself, "nothing beats this does it sis?" He asked the girl.

No response. "Sis? Isabella?" He asked again, turning his head to look at his sister, and gasping at the horror. The girl's eyes had rolled back into her head; red liquid flowed from her hair, covering her face. Her mouth was wide open, blood pouring down from it. There was a flash of lightning, even though there were no clouds within miles. Each time the lightning flashed, the zombified little girl would look older, her short black hair longer, her face more mature; however the blood, the white eyes, and the zombie-look never changed.

The boy couldn't look away, he couldn't scream, he was frozen in fear at the sight that was his twin sister. So shocked he was, that he never moved away as the now older version of his sister, clad in bloody armor, crawled over to him and pushed him over. As she climbed on-top of him, blood dripped onto the boy's mortified face. Her lips moved slowly as she spoke in a terrifying voice.

"Why... why...?" She asked. "Why did you leave me...?"

The boy couldn't respond, he was too scared to, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak. He could only stare at this creature.

"Why... why...?" She asked again, before screaming, "WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME BEHIND ISAAC?!"

**Reality**

**Pacific Ocean, near the Solomon Islands**

Something hit him in the head, knocking him from his slumber. "I said wake the fuck up!" A voice followed the hit. Isaac shook his head, groaning.

_The hell was that...? A nightmare?_ He thought, cold sweat dripping down his face. He breathed a sigh of relief, before looking at the guy who had hit him. The figure was clad in black armor, covered head to toe. His helmet was also black, but had several vertical red strips on it. The figure raised an arm and tapped the side of its helmet, and after a _sisss_, the visor raised up, revealing the face of a black man with a wide white smile.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty, it's almost jump time." The man said while maintaining his grin.

Isaac shook his head, "Did you have to hit me first?" He asked. Honestly, he was thankful for the wake-up, it pulled him out of that hellish nightmare.

The man just grinned in response. "Couldn't resist. What? You'd rather I give you a good morning kiss?"

"No, I'm good." Isaac stumbled to his feet slowly, taking a look around. He too was clad in the same black armor that covered him head to toe; armor that looked like it had been ripped from some sci-fi movie of the late 2000s. He was inside the cargo bay of Boeing Globemaster IV, which by now should be flying over the Solomon Islands (if it was really jump time that is). He and the other man, we're two members of a seven man squad, all of whom were starting to huddle up around Isaac.

_Last minute brief time I guess_. Isaac thought before tapping a button by the side of his own helmet, lowering the visor over his face. His vision flashed green for a moment, bringing his HUD up. He quickly scanned its contents, and gave himself a nod, satisfied with what he saw.

"I personally, would've taken the kiss." A cocky female voice said, seemingly from nowhere.

Isaac let out a sigh. "That's why I didn't ask you for your opinion." He muttered in response.

A box opened up in the top right corner of his HUD, revealing the face of a young, beautiful Japanese woman with a snarky grin. "Sleep well? " She asked.

"No, not at all."

Her face suddenly flashed, revealing numbers flowing up and down her face, as her expression changed to one of concern. "Another nightmare?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"So yes, another nightmare."

"Shut up Mute."

"Not a chance." Mute's expression returned to her usual snarky grin.

Isaac rubbed the back of his neck as he let of a long exasperated sigh. He really wasn't in the mood for this right after waking up from that nightmare. _Why do I have to have those damn things... why damn it Isabella?_ He cursed his memories and that of his long gone twin. _I'll never be able to move on from her death if I don't stop getting these damn nightmares!_

His expression must have changed, because Mute noticed it right away. "Don't worry about it right now, look its almost briefing time." The AI reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Isaac muttered in response. He had forgotten for a second that while his face was hidden behind this visor, his AI partner could still see it.

The seven man squad gathered around. Isaac's eyes jumped from each individual, all of whom now had helmets on and visors down, covering each one's face. As his eyes darted over each on, a small reading appeared next to that individual, giving him their call-signs.

The man, who woke Isaac up, Jackhammer, was easily the tallest of the group; he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, taking a laid back stance that fit him all too well. Directly across from Isaac stood Oracle, the shortest of the group and the squad's leader. She held herself up as such, taking an authoritarian but open stance. The other four (named Blitzkrieg, Athena, Raptor, and Firewall) took various stances, that showed that they were all paying attention, but relaxed. All were wearing the same black armor, but each one's helmet varied a little. Blitzkrieg's visor covered the entire face, while Jackhammer's was only a slit across where his eyes were. Firewall's looked as if they were goggles strapped over-top his helmet's plating, and Athena's visor was wider at the sides.

_Too each his own I suppose_. Isaac thought, taking a relaxed pose. At that moment, several quick flashes of light occurred that when faded, revealed seven small holograms to the right of each individual. The AIs. Each took their own form such as a knight in shining armor, a business-man, or even a wolf. Isaac took a glance at Mute's hologram. She was dressed in full samurai armor helmet included, but without the face-mask. Her long hair flowed down to her lower back, and she maintained her snarky grin.

"Ok, now that we're all here, meta-humans and AIs alike, let's go over this one more time." Oracle began, her voice commanding the whole cargo bay.

_Meta-humans... beats "Mutant freak" any day I suppose_. Isaac thought to himself with a silent snort.

"Two days ago the Pentagon's mole in the Ascension forwarded us the location of a research base in the Solomon Islands. After clarifying this, the order came out to send it to hell. That's our job, destroy the base and take anything of value with us." She summed up the objectives. "Firewall!" She turned to the team's tech expert. "Your first task is to download the base's layout and send it to everyone, after that your main task is to hack into the systems and download anything you can. I don't care if it's the Ascensions next doom weapons or their browsing history, just download it."

"Ma'am!" Firewall gave Oracle a quick salute.

"Jackhammer, Blitzkrieg, Athena, your job is to set up the explosives. Each one of you set them to your own personal detonators. I don't want this chance wasted over a malfunction in one of your triggers."

The three of them gave their own "yes ma'ams", and "aye-ayes".

"Raptor," Oracle continued her brief, "You hit the prison decks, if there's anyone inside, get them out."

"Aye-aye ma'am." Raptor responded, her southern Texas accent strong as ever.

"Archangel," Oracle turned to Isaac, "You're with me. Our job is to give Firewall the cover he needs to work his magic."

Isaac nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Oracle paused for a second, "AIs, anything to add?"

The seven AIs remained silent, with the exception of one: Jackhammer's AI Stark. The wolf gave a howl before asking, "How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?"

"That's my boy!" Jackhammer laughed in response.

Oracle shook her head, "So nothing, alright. Gear up!"

As they each broke off to their lockers, a voice went over the entire aircraft's PA. "Approaching the isles now. Shadow team, prepare to jump in five." The pilot's voice informed them all.

Isaac opened his locker and grabbed his personal equipment: four short swords, two pistols, an assault rifle, assorted grenades, throwing knives, and a hidden-wrist blade. As he attached the latter to his wrist, Mute's face popped back up in the corner of his HUD. "You know, you take the term, bringing a knife to a gunfight to a whole new level."

"Well, thanks to my... talents, getting up close is never an issue." Isaac reassured his AI partner as he strapped his quad-sheath over his back, and strapped each individual short sword in, creating a X shape on his back.

After suiting up, and the two minutes till jump warning came out, Isaac joined the rest of the squad at the back of the now open Globemaster's cargo bay. "Strap up, jetpacks for course correction only until I say so, understood?"

"Aye-aye." Athena responded for the rest of them. Isaac made sure his jetpack was buckled on properly, but his swords on his back made it a little difficult. After he was satisfied, he attached the stabilizers to his gauntlets, making sure they too were strapped to his liking.

"You know, I think this is a terrible idea, do you really think we'll gain the momentum we need to... well..." Firewall cautioned the team.

"Are you referring to our 'dive into an underground base plan?" Jackhammer asked in response.

"That base is only a meter underground; we'll puncture the Earth without an issue." Oracle reassured the team's youngest with a pat on the back. "No prepare to jump. Pilot?" Oracle asked the aircraft's pilot over the COM.

"Fifteen seconds till jump."

"Roger, ok everyone, remember the plan, let's do this quickly, and then we can all go home for a drink."

"Or several, I feel like I'm going to need it after this." Blitzkrieg rolled and rubbed his neck as he muttered that.

"Alcoholic." Athena nudged him with her elbow, even though the man stood a good foot taller than her.

"Only if you admit to it." He responded.

"Shadow team, you're clear to jump. Good luck out there." The pilot wished them.

"Luck is for those who need it!" Jackhammer responded and took a running start. "Check me out! I'm Tony Stark!" He shouted as he jumped out of the plane, his "woohoo" trailing after him.

"Go, go, go!" Oracle motioned with her hand as she too ran out of the flying aircraft.

"Just another day on the job, right?" Mute grinned at Isaac.

"Just another day." Isaac responded with when he too, leapt out of the plane, plummeting to the Earth below.

**The Minister**

**The Institute of War**

Valoran was a peace; At least, as close as it ever got to for the continent. And it bothered Kasubel, in a cynical sense. He couldn't remember the last time things had been so clam; prior to the present day, the closest they had ever been to peace was just over a year ago, and that ended a week later when the conflict in Kalamanda began.

In short, to Kasubel, peace meant that another problem would soon be on the rise. And that made peace weary for Kasubel.

And he was right.

Kasubel sat at his desk in his office, with a troubled look on his face. Before him, were two sets of documents: one from the city-state of Noxus, the other from Demacia. He had only glanced over each one, and he was already troubled by the contents he skimmed.

"Hmm..." The 52 year old man grunted to himself, one hand stroking his somewhat grown out beard, the other hand tapping his desk as he thought.

"Anything?" A woman's voice interrupted his thoughts, causing Kasubel's eyes to rise up and see who it was. A young woman with long red hair that covered one of her eyes stood with her arms crossed, looking right back at him with cold eyes. Her clothing was light, with random tears here and there, and she had numerous swords and knives buckled around her body. Next to her was a tall, muscular, brown-haired man who held himself up high, covered in a blue cloth and battered grey armor. The two stood before his desk, each staring him down waiting for response to the papers they had dropped onto his desk.

However, Kasubel didn't have a response that would satisfy both of them. Not yet at least.

"How accurate are these?" He asked the pair instead of giving them an answer.

"Four days." The man replied in a deep, commanding voice.

"Three," The red haired girl cocked her head slightly to the right, looking and grinning at the man next to her, "Noxusian intelligence is always up to date."

The man turned to his left, facing the smaller woman. He towered over her by at least three feet. "That may be so, but Demacian intelligence is far more accurate. I had the best eyes and ears bring me the facts for this report."

The woman snorted. "You're so called best eyes and ears consist of a rookie girl and her pet bird."

"Enough..." Kasubel grumbled; he was sick of hearing these two bicker. "Keep the feuding out of my office." _I must have been insane to agree to hearing both of them at the same time. Damn their timing_. He flipped over the Demacian reports again, and sure enough, the names Quinn and Valor appeared more than once throughout the report.

However, the two were far from done. "Do not presume you can insult my men and women with your head held up high, Noxusian!" He bellowed, clearly displeased at the shot the woman made towards his own soldiers.

The woman snorted again, lowering her arms until they rested on two of her sword hilts at her waist. "Whatever you say, Garen. I'll just lower my head and insult your so called army." The woman lowered her head slightly as she taunted Garen, "Maybe Demacia is responsible for these disappearances after all."

"You dare insult our honor?!" Garen bellowed, drawing his massive sword, "I will not let such an insult pass. Draw your blades, Katarina Du Couteau!"

"I said enough!" Kasubel raised his voice till it was almost a yell. "Both of you, you are acting like children!" He looked up at both of them. They had both stopped and turned to face him, expressions unreadable. Once he was certain he had their attention, Kasubel continued. "Don't you two understand? This..." He slammed his hands on both sets of papers, "These, disappearances have been happening all over the world."

Katarina narrowed her eyes slightly resumed her cross-armed stance. "What do you mean?"

Kasubel let out a sigh and reached into his desk, pulling out a complied stack of reports. Setting them on his desk with a loud thud, he laid them out for the two champions to see. "Ionia, Piltover, Freljord, Zaun, the list goes on." He told them as he laid the reports out for the two of them. One had the handwriting of Ionia's Captain of the Guard: Irelia. A second report had the signature of Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover. Another even had the messy scribbling that was Miss Fortune's "printing".

Both Garen and Katarina's fighting ceased much to Kasubel's delight (although he made sure he didn't show it). Garen towered over his desk, eyes darting from each report Kasubel had laid out for them. Katarina herself picked up a report documented by Teemo of Bandle City and started to flip through it.

Kasubel let out a sigh and sat back down, hand to his beard yet again. _Bad habit... I might have to shave this thing_.

"These numbers..." Katarina eyes darted from the report in her hands to Kasubel, her hair no longer covering up her scared eye. "Are they real?" She asked.

Kasubel nodded. "I wouldn't have believed it myself, had Teemo not dropped it off in person."

"What is it?" Garen asked, picking up the Ionian report.

"The numbers from that little furry bastard's report, there far above what was in mine."

Kasubel stood up and wandered over to his window, deep in thought. What on Valoran was happening?

He let out a sigh. "Now do you two understand?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder. Garen's expression was that of a troubled man as he read Irelia's report, while Katarina dropped Teemo's back onto his desk and quickly snatched up the one from Bilgewater.

"Yes..." Garen muttered, "These reports confirm it..."

"Great..." Katarina half muttered half groaned, "People all over Valoran really are disappearing."

Kasubel was relived. They both understood now. "Yes, not just from your nations, but all across the land. People are vanishing overnight, from their homes, from roads, from their workplaces. Farmers, soldiers, even entire ships, it matters not. Someone or something is kidnapping mass amounts of people." Kasubel summed up for both of them before glancing back out the window from his office in the Institute of War. _But who or what is doing this?_ He thought.

The Minister of Valoran Security gave a deep, long sigh. He was NOT going to enjoy reporting this to the Council of Equity. _Just when things were getting peaceful again, it seems like we have a new issue on our hands. Only... who is our enemy this time?_

**United we Fall**

**Above the Solomon Islands**

"Spread it out, but not too far people." Oracle cautioned as they all free-fell to the Earth below.

Isaac's night-vision kicked in, allowing him to see far and wide. Sure enough, the Solomon Islands were below them, and nothing but ocean in the distance.

"Guys, I'm still having my doubts." Firewall, ever the voice of caution, still seemed hesitant about their entry plan.

"Come on, what's the worse that could happen?" Jackhammer chuckled over the COM.

"Umm... we make seven craters in the ground. That's what."

"As long as you remember to hit the boost as hard as you can, we'll plunge right through the ground and land inside the base." Oracle reassured him.

"What if we keep on going?" Firewall didn't sound convinced.

"Then climb out of the bloody hole. It'll suck and you'll be sore as hell, but it's better than being dead."

"The shielding on these suits can absorb a lot, trust me. Archangel took a tank shell to the chest three weeks ago and he's still here with all his ribs."

"Thanks for the reminder," Isaac responded, slightly cringing behind his visor as he remembered, "I was still in a life-tube for a week."

"I still think you should've toughed it out and came drinking that night." Blitzkrieg joked.

"Alright, lock it up team, on my mark, ignite jetpacks and hold onto your helmets." Oracle announced. Out of the corner of his eye, Isaac saw he suddenly flip during mid-fall so her feet where facing the ground. The rockets on her jetpack reversed so that they were facing upwards. He, and he was certain everyone else, followed suit.

"On three..."

"Here we go." Jackhammer interrupted,

"One."

"Ready Firewall?" Raptor asked.

"Two."

"We're all gonna die..." Firewall groaned.

"Three! Mark!" Oracle's jetpack ignited and she rocketed towards the Earth even faster. Isaac and everyone else did the same. "Woohoo!" Mute shouted inside his helmet. "Remember, if you weren't wearing this armor, your feet would've already gone through your brains!"

Isaac wanted to shout something back at his AI, but he was too busy keeping his jaw shut for safety reasons as he plunged even faster to the Earth. The ground rushed up to meet him, and he prayed Mute didn't forget to do her job. Thankfully, she didn't.

"Hardening suit, now!" Mute announced and Isaac saw a quick yellow flash cover his vision. He quickly made himself as skinny as possible so that he would needle himself through the ground.

It was all over in a blink. He smashed into the dirt and, sure enough he punched right through. His sight was nothing but dirt for a quarter of a second, and pain rushed through his legs. But after that quarter second, light blinded his sight and he came to sudden stop, he body slammed against the ground and he caught himself with one hand, landing in a tackle position. His entire body also screamed in pain for a second as his suit absorbed most of the shock, but not all of it.

_Gonna be sore _tomorrow. He thought as he grimaced from the quick pain.

His night-vison turned off, revealing the new scenery before him: A metal corridor, dirt and debris on the ground around him, and a lot of surprised faces. Several of which were carrying guns. No one moved, not the base guards, not Isaac nor his team. Time seemed to stop.

That was until Jackhammer stood up. "Knock knock!" He shouted and grabbed the two sub-machine guns strapped to his waist, unloading them on the still shocked guards. Isaac watched as they all screamed, being gunned down by black armored meta-humans.

"Go! Go! Go!" Oracle shouted, and the entire team kicked into action. Isaac ran up to a guard with such speed he knew the man would never be able to react in time. With his left hand he smashed the gun out of his hand and with his right delivered a punch the man's throat. The man was knocked back from the momentum, hand as at his throat, gasping for air. Unfortunately for him, Isaac knew he had just caved in his entire throat. He vaulted forward, grabbing the man by the head, and smashed him into the ground. As he jumped to his feet, he made a quick glance to make sure his opponent was dead. Sure enough, blood oozed over the ground from the now limp body.

And that's all he had to do, since the rest of the guards had been taken down by the rest of his team.

"Let's do this quickly!" Oracle motioned with her hands, "Demo team head that way!" She pointed behind them before racing down the corridor past Isaac. He followed suit with Firewall behind him. Isaac grabbed his assault rifle that was slung to his side and shouldered it as they ran. Oracle turned the corner before him, and he already heard her own rifle firing off rounds. Isaac dropped to one knee and slid around the corner, coming to a stop a little off to Oracle's left. There were six guards, two of which were already falling to the ground with blood coming from their wounds. Isaac set one of the guards in his sights and squeezed the trigger, "feeling" the rifle slam back into his shoulder from the recoil. The three round burst he let off stuck one of the men, all in the chest. He dropped then and there, without a motion. The others ran for cover, but by the time they had reached the sides of the wall where they were out of sight, another two had dropped.

"Firewall, hack now!" Oracle motioned the youngest member to the console on the side.

"On it!" Firewall ran to the console just ahead of Isaac and Oracle.

_Of course the console is in the open. _Isaac shook his head at the thought and moved forward to cover his team mate. Both he and Oracle fired rounds that the pinned down guard, preventing him from doing anything. Another two guards rounded the corner at the very end of the hall, but before they even could raise their own rifles, they were gunned down by Isaac and Oracle. Oracle ran up to where the pinned down guard was and slide past him, firing several rounds. Isaac heard the man scream, then fall into his view, blood soaking the metal ground.

"Clear!" Oracle announced. "Firewall talk to me."

"Got the map, sending it now. But there's something off here." Firewall began. "There's a room deeper inside the base that nearly 50% of the entire base's power is flowing to. " He paused, his hands (which had been typing furiously a second ago also froze). "Wait, 65% now... 70%, ma'am there powering something up inside that room."

_Great_. "Is it a bomb?" Isaac asked. Sure he and the rest of the team could take down an entire platoon of these guards, but a bomb? Isaac didn't want to beat money on surviving a nuclear explosion of sorts.

"No not a bomb..." Firewall quelled Isaac's momentary fears as he resumed hammering away at the keyboard. "Something else... something that is taking up nearly 85% of all power inside this base."

"Whatever they're doing, we're going to stop it! Move!"

They continued to race through the corridors, meeting up with the rest of the squad on the way (Oracle having pulled them from the original plan). Resistance was about what Isaac expected it to be; all easily dispatched but just enough to keep him from getting overconfident. But just as he told himself that, he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a much more heavily armored guard who stood nearly two heads over him. Isaac reacted first (as he always did), raising the butt end of his rifle up to meet the soldier's jaw, something he had to leap fore. It connected and the two of them crashed to the ground, with Isaac on top. He grabbed one of his throwing knives and tried to stab the man in his exposed neck. Before his hand could reach home however, a quick loud bang went off in the distance and something hit him square in the chest.

_Railgun round! Damn it! _Isaac knew what hit him judging by the sound he heard a nano-second before. _How do they have those?_ A bar showing his armor's shield strength flashed red with a warning. _Can't take many of those_. Although he was unharmed, mostly, the momentum from the shot still knocked him off the taller guard.

"Covering fire!" Jackhammer shouted from behind Isaac, and he could see in the distance the guards with railguns scrambling for cover under the hail of bullets.

However, the big guard Isaac was fighting stood up and brandished a hammer, bringing it back to hit Isaac.

_Shields won't stop slow moving objects!_ Isaac reminded himself, a metal hammer swung by a man that big would crack his helmet open. Isaac quickly scanned through his head for a solution to get out of his sudden predicament, but failed to see anything other than one option. The option he hated using.

_Damn it, no choice!_ Isaac waited for the man to swing downwards horizontally at his head before making his move. He brought himself upwards, catching the man's hand with the hammer with his own left arm, halting the attack. Isaac then focused his mind on his right hand, and felt his skin respond by growing hot. Black sparks began to appear around his right hand's gauntlet, and the number of sparks grew quickly over the course of a second before becoming a ball shape around his hand. He quickly formed a chop with his hand and drove it forward towards the man's stomach, and in his mind, Isaac pictured a spear-tip. The ball of dark energy followed suit, and formed a spear-tip just as his hand reached the man's gut.

His hand with straight through the man's armor and Isaac felt little resistance afterwards, knowing he had punctured the man's flesh. The fact that the man also let out a bloodcurdling scream also let him know he had struck home.

_Now!_ Isaac released the thought of a spear-tip in his head and formed his and into a fist, and then opened his hand quickly. There was a loud static sound, and Isaac jumped away from the man, who appeared to have no idea what just happened aside from the pain he was experiencing.

_Goodbye_. Isaac thought as the scene unfolded before him. The man shook violently, dropping the hammer and grabbing his stomach. A black light shone out of the hole in his gut, which quickly faded after a second. Suddenly the man screamed again, stumbled backwards, and the center of his body exploded, leaving, a charred corpse on the ground missing half its torso.

The firefight ended there. Jackhammer pulled Isaac to his feet.

"Damn dude, remind me never to ask you to do any magic tricks." The taller man chuckled.

"Let's move!" Oracle didn't even give the disfigured corpse a look and simply ran past it. Isaac followed her, scooping up his rifle and reloading it.

"Ah yes... the truth of the meta-humans..." Mute's voice filled Isaac's head. "Tell me Isaac, how does it feel to be the height of human evolution?"

"It's not evolution."

"Sorry, let me correct that, how does it feel to be the height of bio and generic engineering?"

_Feels like a monster._ Isaac thought, his right hand having gone numb after that. _Damn it, even using a little like that causes those damn side effects_. Isaac never could forget that resorting to using dark matter had nasty effects on his own body. _Whatever, I've got other powers... we all do_.

**Rift**

When they finally reached the mystery room, they gave no quarter. Blitzkrieg blew the doors open with his own powers, and Isaac was among the first in. It was a large circular room, and had every appearance of a control room. What stood out the most though was a large glowing circler object in the center of the room with several large tubes and cords connected to it.

_Bingo._ Isaac thought immediately upon seeing it. It gave him the shivers for some reason, as if it was incredibly cold. _The hell is with this feeling? Huh... well, first, the guards_. Without further ado, everything hit the fan. The guards had been waiting for them, and open fired instantly. Isaac slid into the room along with Raptor and Oracle. Isaac ran towards the ledge (their entrance was higher up then the main floor of the room) and vaulted over the railing.

_Now!_ Isaac activated his second meta-human power, and time seemingly slowed down inside him. Everything moved as if it were in slow motion, the guards, his teammates, everything. Isaac still had one hand on the railing, as he was in mid vault, but his free arm had a firm grip on his assault rifle and was aimed perfectly ahead. He closed one eye to make sure he didn't miss and aimed at the first group of four guards there were in his landing spot. He aimed at the first one, squeezed the trigger and let off a pair of bullets. He then did the same for the second, then the third, and then the last guard. As he did he felt his head grow hazy and his vision blur. He had been in his timeslow for too long. _Already, damn! _He cursed relaxed himself, causing everything to return to normal speeds. As if someone had his resume on the TV. remote, time sped back up, Isaac landed on the ground and the four guards all lurched backwards as each bullet hit them in the heads. Isaac ran towards cover, not wanting to risk his shields taking any unnecessary hits. Chaos continued all round him as Isaac jumped up onto another platform with two more guards. He landed in a crouching position and gunned both men down. Another man charged at him from his right holding a knife, trying to take him off guard. _Fool_. Isaac leapt up to his feet and gave the knife hand a kick, sending it flying and breaking the man's fingers. As the assailant lost his footing and began to stumble towards him, Isaac grabbed another one of his throwing knives and, with a quick motion, sliced the man's throat as he stumbled past him. Without sparing a look at the soon-to-be-dead man Isaac threw the knife at another target higher up on a ledge, catching the man in the chest.

And with that it was over. "Clear." Oracle announced. "Firewall get on that console and download everything. Jackhammer, Athena, guard our exit. Blitzkrieg, Archangel, Raptor, make sure there's no one in hiding."

Everyone hopped to their duties; Raptor walked past Isaac and gave him a nudge. "Check that side," She motioned with her head. "I got over here."

"Got it." Isaac nodded, and made his way over to the corner of the room where Raptor had motioned to. It was littered with boxes everywhere, perfect place for someone to hide. Isaac checked around each box, but found nobody. "Clear over here." He announced.

"Same here." Raptor responded over the COM.

"Got nothing here either, Goth can't pick up anything either." Blitzkrieg reported back.

"Not sure I trust Goth's scanner though." Mute chipped in about her fellow AI. "Hey, what's inside those boxes?"

"I'd rather not go opening random boxes and crates inside a terrorist base."

"Oh come on, aren't you curious? A little bit?"

Isaac let out a sigh. _Quick peek can't hurt_. He grabbed the lid of one and gave it a tug, expecting some resistance. To his surprise there was none, and it popped right off, allowing him to peer inside. Isaac's eyes went wide open at the sight of its contents. Several canisters of glowing blue mist.

_Glowing blue... what?_ Isaac had never seen or heard of a substance on Earth that had such a deep, blue glow. The blue mist almost looked like it was liquid.

"Mute?" Isaac asked his partner.

"A second, scanning now." After hearing her response, Isaac saw a circular scanner appear in his HUD that hovered over the canisters. After a few seconds the scanner came up negative. "Nothing... it's not registered in... anything." Mute announced. Her face appeared in the corner of Isaac's HUD, showing her surprised face.

"Nothing?" Isaac asked just to make sure.

"Nope, nothing. It's not even close to anything listed in the database. But whatever it is, it's giving off a high energy reading unlike anything I've ever seen before." Mute explained to him, her face giving hints of her overbearing curiosity. "We should take a box with us."

"Maybe." Isaac felt that some things were better off not known, but if the Ascension had this stuff and the United States of North America had no idea what it was, then maybe she was right._ First, some outside input_. He looked around and noticed Blitzkrieg walking by.

"Blitz, take a look at this." He waved his comrade over.

"What's up kiddo?" He asked. Isaac make a gesture towards his own eyes with two fingers and then down towards the box. Blitzkrieg calmly walked over and looked inside. "Was die fricken?" He muttered to himself.

"English?"

"What the fuck?"

"Ah."

"So... what is it?"

"Not a clue, Mute can't figure it out either."

As if on cue, Mute's hologram appeared next to Isaac. She had her arms crossed and her head tilted to the side. "I said it's not in the database and it doesn't register on any energy level seen on Earth. I never said," She made a shrug and changed the tone of her voice "Durr I can't figure it out?"

"Hmm..." Blitzkrieg stared at the canister, and after a second, a hologram of a knight fully clad in gothic armor appeared.

"Mute's right, I can't pick it up either." Goth shook "his" head. "I suggest we take it back to headquarters for study and documenting."

"Agreed." Blitzkrieg nodded, before turning around. "Oracle, take a look at this." He called for the squad leader over the COM.

"Not now, the stuff Firewall is picking out of this database they have here is... amazing."

"What? He found some porno site?" Jackhammer jested.

Firewall cleared his throat over the COM before he began. "This thing, this... glowing thing for lack of a better term is giving off readings that are off the scale. It's like... I don't know... a rift of sorts?"

"A... rift?" Athena's voice this time.

"Yeah... or maybe a wormhole, I don't know. All that's for certain is that its giving off so much energy and dark matter that according to these logs of theirs that if we blew this base to kingdom come, this rift might take more than just a chunk of the land with it.

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked. He wasn't liking the sound of this so far.

"I mean this thing has got so much energy and dark matter channeled into it that if it was damaged it could explode. We're talking nuclear scale explosion. I could take out half the Solomon isles with it.

"Umm... dude, that's, bigger than an explosion caused by a nuke." Raptor chimed in.

"Wait, dark matter you say?" Blitzkrieg looked back at Isaac. "You feeling anything?"

Isaac closed his eyes and focused on the so called rift. Sure enough, there was that chilling feeling again, only the more he focused, the more strong it felt. "Yeah I feel it. That thing is dangerous without a doubt."

"So what, blowing it up its out of the question then?" Jackhammer asked.

"I'll radio command, there gonna love this..." Oracle growled slightly. She walked away from Firewall's console and put on hand the side of her helmet.

"Umm... guys, we got incoming!" Jackhammer reported in.

Oracle pointed at Isaac and Blitzkrieg and motioned towards the door. "Go!" She shouted.

Isaac nudged Blitzkrieg and the two of them ran towards the entrance, with Isaac taking the lead. As he ran past the rift, he could feel its chilling aura, and it made him nervous.

"Shit!" Athena shouted over the COM.

"RPG!" Jackhammer also shouted.

Isaac looked up at the entrance where the two were and saw them both scramble away from the entrance. A rocket flew straight threw it. Isaac looked up and saw where it was heading. _Aw shit_.

It hit a series of tubes above the rift, right above Isaac causing debris to fall down onto him. He dove out of the way as a large piece of metal landed right where he was standing a moment ago. _Close_. Isaac stood up, but felt an incredible cold wash over him. _What the?_ Isaac looked to his right; the rift was only a meter or two away from him. It was now flashing, and sparks were going off it in a very dramatic fashion.

"Firewall!" Oracle shouted. Amidst the gunfire that erupted.

"The rift is going haywire. That rocket damaged it!" He explained. Isaac felt the chill get more intense, but then it stopped just as suddenly. Only to be replaced with a deafening ringing noise. Isaac gritted his teeth and covered his ears, trying to block out the sudden sound. It solved nothing, and the chilling returned and the ringing got louder. Mute's face appeared in his HUD, "Isaac!" She shouted her expression clearly concerned.

Isaac tried to respond, but the moment he opened his mouth, the pain and sound got even more intense, as did the sparks from the rift.

He let out a scream of pain instead. And fell to his knees, gripping the sides of his head. He noticed Firewall turn around at the sound of his scream. "Oh no..."

"What the fuck is oh no?!" Isaac shouted, still on both his knees and gripping the sides of his helmet. He had never experienced pain like this since...

"The dark matter is going off the charts! Archangel get away from that thing!" Firewall shouted at Isaac.

_No shit! Gah!_ Isaac tried to rise to his feet, but then he felt a weight push him back down to his knees.

"The hell is wrong?!" Oracle shouted, Isaac could barely hear them now.

"The rift is going haywire! Its sending out so much dark matter and energy right now that it's affecting Archangel since he's DM sensitive!" Firewall turned around, his attention back to the console. "I can't shut it down!"

"Well figure it out!" Oracle took a step towards Isaac, "Archangel! Hang-" She began, when a bolt of dark purple lightning shot out of the rift and hit her in the shoulder.

Oracle screamed, and then her entire body flashed a deep purple color.

And then she was gone.

Isaac couldn't believe it, she just... vanished. Firewall turned spun around. "Oracle? Commander!?" He asked, half shouting.

"The fuck is going on?!" Raptor shouted, well... at least Isaac thought she was, her voice sounded like a whisper. In the distance, Isaac could make her out, hiding behind a crate for cover as she was shooting at something out of his line of sight.

Another bolt shot out and hit the crate in from of her, causing a blue explosion. Raptor's scream filled his ears, it made his blood curdle. An object fell and rolled to his feet, and Isaac looked down at it although his gut told him not to.

It was Raptor's helmet, charred, and charred remains falling out from the inside.

"Oh God..." Firewall's voice was even more distance as he turned to face the console again. A third bolt shot out and struck him in the back, causing him to recoil and scream. And just like Oracle, his body flashed and he vanished.

_So this is it...?_ Isaac slowly turned, trying to block out the pain, and faced the rift not two meters away. _Well come on, get it over with. It's not like my life means much anyways._ He thought. Just then, another flash; this time hitting him. Isaac shouted as pain lashed throughout his body, causing him to scream.

The last thing he saw was a purple light, enveloping him.

**Contact**

**Summoner's Chamber, The Institute of War **

Something was wrong; Senior Summoner Arcal could feel it. He motioned to the other six summoners in the bright circular room with him, and they all focused on their summoner energy. He closed his eyes and focused on his power, searching for what was wrong. He found it, a tear in the Void.

_That can't be good, no way_. Arcal cursed internally. The High Council of Equity was right, there was something strange going on in the Void. That strange tear he felt was proof of it.

He cleared his throat before addressing his fellow summoners. "Summoners, do you feel it? That strange tear?" The others nodded in response. "Good, now let us investigate, but be careful! I don't want another incident like the one with Nocturne." He ordered the others, as the others gripped their Summoner Orbs and focused. Arcal himself turned to look behind him, and found who he was looking for leaning up against the wall: A woman dressed in black with a long black ponytail and red glasses.

"Vayne, we are beginning our investigation." He told the woman.

Vayne responded with a nod and adjusted the crossbow attached to wrist. The fact that it was already loaded slightly unnerved Arcal. He was personally against having a champion, let alone one such as Vayne, in the room with them as they carried out the High Council's orders, but they had insisted on having someone there just in case something went wrong. Although personally, Arcal would much rather have Lucian watching over them then the Night Hunter.

He shook his head and returned his attention to his orb, focusing on that tear. He closed his eyes and pictured it, a small gap of light in a sea of chaos.

And there it was, but no sooner as he found it did that light begin to fluctuate. _What is going on?_ Arcal's burrowed his eye brows. He felt it, he felt as if there was something on the other side of that light. As if someone or something was on the other side of the Void, trying to break through. _Impossible, that's just outright impossible, there's nothing beyond the Void! It's just... more of the Void!_

But just as Arcal reassured himself, did a bright jet of flame shoot out of the so called light in his mind.

"What was that?!" Another summoner shouted.

"I don't know! It's like something just came out of that stream!"

"Impossible! There's nothing beyond the Void! Let alone something that could pass THROUGH the damn thing!"

"Well something just did!"

"Enough!" Arcal barked at his fellow bickering summoners, his eyes still closed and focused on that light. Whatever that had shot of it was long gone out of his sight. "Keep focused on it, whatever tried to pass through it again, stop it!"

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

_There, it's doing it again!_ Arcal burrowed his eyebrows again as the light on the other side of the Void began to fluctuate again. But nothing shot out of it.

That's when Arcal felt a chill growing down his spine. _Damn, the monsters in the Void have found us intruding. _"Be careful my fellow summoners, the Void has noticed our presence. Guard your minds!" He cautioned his comrades.

But as he and his comrades tried to careful bar their minds from the horrors of the Void, did something else shoot out of the light yet again.

_Damn it!_ Arcal tried to reach out with his mind, and he could "see" an arm, then six other arms (his fellow summoners) try to grab it. But they were too slow and it zoomed by them.

_Curses!_ Arcal snarled, but just as he did, did the light begin to fluctuate a third time. _This is it, we cannot fail again!_

"Get ready..." He cautioned his team again.

A third bolt fired out of the light.

He reached out with his mind.

So did the others.

And they caught it.

Arcal "pulled" with his mind, giving it everything he had. The strange bolt of light tried to fight its way out of their grasp, but they managed to pull it in.

_We got it!_ Arcal opened his eyes just in time to see a massive flash in the center of the room. He shielded his eyes from the blast, dropping his Summoner Orb. He felt it roll by his feet, away from him. _Damn it!_ He cursed again, trying to open his eyes, but the flash of light didn`t fade. He looked over his shoulder at Vayne and saw that she too was trying to cover her eyes from the light.

_What is it...?_ Arcal tried to focus as the light finally began to fade, and when it did, he heard his fellow summoners gasp.

In the center of the room, there laid a figure clad in strange black armor. It was lying sprawled out on its stomach, unmoving.

No one moved, no one expect Arcal. He slowly approached the figure, trying to get a better look.

_Who... what is this?!_ He tried to look brave in front of his junior summoners. It was his duty to investigate the disturbances and it was damn well his duty to make sure whatever they had just pulled out of that light was not a danger.

When he was only a meter away, he froze. _It's armed!_ He spotted the four sword hilts on its back, which made an X shape. Furthermore, objects that seemed to resemble pistols and (grenades?) were strapped to its waist.

_Careful now... it, he, she, whatever could be dangerous!_ Arcal swallowed hard and tried to take another step closer. But he froze when the strange human-shaped figure made a noise.

Arcal didn't move an inch. He just watched as the figure let out a groan and began to move, struggling to get to its hands and knees. But just as it got up on all fours, its arms and legs gave out and it fell back to the floor with a crash.

_Maybe it's hurt?_ Arcal took another two steps forward and fell to one knee, keeping his guard up. _If it moves suddenly, I'll hit it with an exhaust and get back..._ It was Vayne's job to take care of a threat, not his at that point. He looked over his right shoulder back at Vayne, who was gone. But Arcal's gut told her she was still in the room somewhere, waiting to strike at the figure.

Another groan from the figure caused Arcal to turn his attention back to him. Before Arcal could say a word, he heard voice come from the figure.

"Wh... where...?" It sounded like the voice of a man, a young one at that.

_It's... maybe a human?_ Arcal thought but shook the thought off. The time for speculation was not now. "Who are you?" He asked, trying hard to cover up his doubts and fears. "What are you?"

"W... what?" The figure groaned again, trying to preach itself up on its hands and knees again.

"Don't move!" Arcal cautiously placed a hand on the armored figure's shoulder. "What is your name?"

The figure however still managed to get to its hands and knees, and slowly raised its head to look up at Arcal.

That was when Arcal felt a wave a fear wash over him. The figure's helmet had no slit. It had nothing but cold, black metal covering the place where a human's face should be. Or was that glass? Whatever the armor was made out of, it wasn't any natural material found on Valoran. And that unnerved Arcal.

_This... this man is not of this world..._ Arcal tried to take a step back, a massive chill running down his spine, telling him to get away from this ebony armored man.

But he was too slow. The man suddenly vaulted forward, grabbing Arcal by the throat and hoisted him up into the air. Arcal's eyes went wide as he felt the cold metallic gauntlet crush his throat. He tried to shout out for help, out in pain, but he only gagged.

_No! No!_ He frantically tried to raise his own hands to lessen the grip, but as he made the attempt, he felt the figure's gauntlet bring him crashing back down. The force was so intense, that Arcal's world went black the moment he struck the ground.

_What... what have we done?_ Was his last thought before everything faded.


	2. Chapter 1 - Arrival

**Combat**

**Summoner's Chamber, The Institute of War**

Isaac had no idea what was going on. Every muscle in his body screamed with protest every time he moved. Every system in his suit was going haywire. Every little thing that was happening right now at this moment seemed totally FUCKED UP to him. But Isaac had only one question that needed answering.

"WHERE THE HELL AM I?!" He shouted at the robed man that he had just slammed to the ground. However, the man simply rolled his head to the side, revealing his rolled up eyes.

_Oh great, the one guy who could answer that question is the one guy I just HAPPEN to knock out!_ Isaac would've chuckled if he saw this on a movie screen. Only that this wasn't a movie. It was real life! The last thing he remembered was suffering eructating pain and then being zapped by that strange thing Firewall had called a rift, and then BAM! He was lying on the floor of a strange room with purple walls and seven robed men staring at him. And before he knew it his self-preservation training kicked in and he had grabbed the first man by the throat and slammed him to the ground.

_If he isn't dead, he's going to have a nasty concussion_. Isaac thought, slowly rising to his feet.

That's when he felt a chill go down his spine. There was someone else here. Without a second thought Isaac dropped to his stomach again, just in time for a bullet to go whizzing over his head. Only that it wasn't a bullet as Isaac had initially thought it was. _A crossbow bolt?_ He only saw it quarter of a second, but he recognized it. It was small, maybe it wasn't a crossbow bolt, but it was defiantly a bolt of some kind.

Isaac paid it no further thought, what matter was someone just tried to punch his ticket. He rolled over, hearing the sounds of additional crossbow bolts hitting the floor where he was lying half a second ago. He kept on rolling for a few feet, listening for the sound of whoever was firing those bolts. _Got him!_ Using the momentum he had gained he leapt up, landed on one knee and drew his pistol. His entire body groaned in stress form the movement, but Isaac didn't let that stop him. He just started shooting in the general direction of wherever those shots had come from.

That's when Isaac saw his attacker; a slender figure had been grappled to the roof in the corner of the room. It leapt to the side, launching itself from the corner down to the floor.

_Damn it!_ Isaac snarled, trying to track it. He had missed every shot! His vision was slightly blurry still from whatever that rift did to him that sent him to... wherever the hell he was now. But he still saw the figure hit the ground and roll to his feet.

Correction, her feet; Isaac could see his attacker clearly now. She had a very long, thick black ponytail, and was dressed all in black with a large black cap that draped down to the floor (even more so since she was in a crouching position. Her glasses had a faint red glow; she had a massive crossbow slung over her back. But what caught Isaac's eye the most was the smaller crossbow that was seemingly strapped to her arm.

And it was aimed right at him.

Isaac fired again at her, and just as he did he saw another crossbow bolt zooming at him. _Shit!_ He cursed and rolled out of the way, the bolt hitting the wall behind him. She also missed, tumbling to the side; but unlike Isaac, she didn't stop shooting. Isaac grimaced as he rolled again, and then dove forward onto his stomach, and then rolled again to the side, dodging her barrage of bolts.

As the fight continued, Isaac saw and heard the six other men run out of the room, screaming.

_How fast can that thing fire?!_ From what Isaac knew, crossbows didn't reload that quickly. Not even close! So what kind of crossbow was that?

Isaac rolled to his feet and took aim at his target again. But just before he could fire, she rolled again... and vanished.

Like, outright, vanished. _What the fuck?_ Isaac didn't move. He was honestly stunned. _Never seen that before_. He cautiously rose to his feet. "Mute, track her!"

No response.

"Mute?" Isaac looked at the top right corner where Mute's face should have appeared; the screen had the words "AI OFFLINE" instead of her snarky grinning face. _Of course, that's why she hadn't said anything! Better reboot her._

"Reboot -" Isaac started the voice command to bring Mute back online, but he felt that chill down his spine again. _Shit!_ He tried to spin around as fast as he could, pistol at the ready. But he wasn't fast enough. Something slammed into his back and sent him flying into a wall.

Isaac felt his whole body shake as he slammed into the wall. His muscles screamed in pain yet again. _Oh that hurt_. Isaac snarled. Why hadn't his shield blocked it? He threw a quick glance at the bar in the bottom left corner of his HUD that should've been displaying his shields simply had showed the words "SHIELDS OFFLINE" instead.

_Of course... why would they BE WORKING?! _Isaac grumbled and tried to move; only he couldn't. _What?_ He tried to move his head, but he couldn't. But he did see his foe in her seemingly usual one-knee stance with her larger crossbow shouldered. _Oh for the love of! She smashed me into the wall with a goddamn crossbow bolt?!_ Isaac struggled to move again, and felt the wall give a little, but not enough to let him go.

He kept his eyes on her though. He had a better look at her face now. _Younger than I thought..._ Isaac thought, slightly surprised.

He also noticed that she had a little smirk, as if she had him right where she wanted him. Well... she kind of did after all.

_Oh great..._

Isaac pushed himself forward with everything he had, freeing himself from the wall and stumbling forward. She fired her large crossbow again, but she didn't stop there. She moved her wrist crossbow into position quickly and fired that too. Then she quickly took aim with her larger crossbow, which she now held with one hand, and fired it a second time.

And it was all done in a second.

But a second was all Isaac needed.

He focused hard, activating his time-slow. Sure enough, the bolts suddenly slowed down, but there were still coming fast.

_Gotta move quickly!_ Isaac, still stumbling forward from freeing himself from where his foe had pinned him, let himself fall to the ground. _That'll put the first bolt just over my head_. He reassured himself and instead focused on the other two, which were aimed lower. _And of course she predicted this... she's good I'll give her that._ Isaac narrowed his eyes, _but I'm better! _

Keeping his time-slow up, and drew one his swords that was sheathed over his back. Although time slowed for him in this power, he didn't move much faster... in fact, he likely moved at the same speed he would've if everything was flowing in real time. But his thoughts, his mind, it all moved as if he was going three times as fast as anyone else.

Isaac lowered his back, putting a strain on his spine, as the first bolt flew over head. Praying that he was low enough to dodge the second on, Isaac swung upwards and to the side with the blade as he drew it from its scabbard. He felt it hit something, and that was all the assurance he needed.

Good thing too, since he felt his vision fade as he did. _Out of time_. He relaxed himself, and returned to normal time. And just like before everything sped back up.

He vaulted forward and rolled, landing on one knee a matter of meters away from his enemy. He heard two bolts hit the wall behind him, and the pieces of the bolt he cut in half hit the ground. But what satisfied Isaac the most was the slightly surprised look on his attackers face. The expression lasted only a second, before her face turned into a snarl.

She gripped her large crossbow with both hands, trying to aim at Isaac again, all while leaping backwards to increase the distance between them.

_Too slow!_ Isaac held his left arm, clutching his sword, at his side, bringing his right arm out front and across to the left side of his body. He narrowed his eyes, focused on the darkness inside him, and swung his right arm back across to the right side of his body.

As he did, his hand cleaved a purple-black streak of visible dark matter in the air. The streak lasted for only half a second before fading, but as it did so three bolts fired out towards his foe.

If Isaac could see her eyes, he was sure they would be wide open in surprise. Being in mid-air there was no way she get away.

And she didn't. The bolts all stuck her, causing her body to shake as purple sparks emitted around her body as she got launched backwards hard from the force, crashing into the wall and sending dust and smoke outwards.

_And that's what happens when you get overconfident, bitch!_ Isaac felt his mouth form a slight grin, as he quickly drew his last remaining pistol with his now burning left hand and took aim. _Another shot should make sure she's dead... can't be too careful_.

Just then, Isaac felt another shiver down his spine. He narrowed his eyes and once again realized that he was no longer alone.

**The Sinister Blade**

_Got him! _Katarina brought both her swords down in a stabbing motion behind the black armored figure's back. But just as she thought that, her prey tumbled forward, causing her to stab the ground with both blades, sending a quick jolt of pain up both her arms. _Damn it!_ She cursed, but didn't let up.

Her target rolled back to one knee, taking aim with his pistol. Katarina darted her right foot out and kicked the firearm out of his hand, sending it flying across the room. Trying to seize the opening she made she took a horizontal swing at his head with her left blade. To her annoyance the ebony armored man leaned back and rolled out of the way again.

_No you don't!_ She snarled and leapt after him, swinging at him again as he landed. He parried the blow with his sword arm, and Katarina took another slice at him with her second blade. However, the black armored man drew another sword with his own free hand and parried that one again.

_He's quick_. Katarina took a step back, as did her foe. She took her favorite fighting stance: one blade over her head, the other in front of her at its side. Her opponent paused for a moment, before mirroring her own stance.

Katarina grinned. Maybe this would be fun after all. She didn't know what to expect when she entered the room, having heard several screaming summoners coming running down the halls in the Institute. She had entered just in time to see Vayne get launched into a wall, with a black armored figure down on one knee, taking aim with a pistol. She was still annoyed that she didn't get him when she used her shunpo to get behind him.

But maybe that was for the better. Now, she could have some sport.

She moved first, throwing the sword she held above her head at him. The attack must've caught him off guard, as he took a second longer then Katarina thought he would to react. With a quick motion he brought one blade down and deflected the thrown sword, but by then Kat had drawn another sword to replace it.

She launched herself forward, swinging down at him. He brought his blades up to block her own, and their swords clashed together loudly. As she landed back on the floor on two feet, she didn't let up. She kept on swinging at him, and he kept on blocking them. Every now and then, her foe would take a swing or stab at her, but she skillfully dodged each one.

_Not bad_. Katarina thought with a mental grin as they continued to dance. However, just when she thought she was getting the upper hand, he lunged forward after parrying one of her many blows. His torso slammed into hers, causing her to grunt, and wrapped an arm around her body.

_Damn!_ Kat tried to drive her knee into his crouch, only to hit hard metal. She grimaced at the sudden pain. But she still saw the motion he made with his free arm. _A stab!_

With her own free arm, she twisted her sword in her hand and around just in time to knock his blade off his intended target, her stomach. Instead, he clumsily moved his free arm around her, causing him to almost hug her. Katarina returned the gesture, wrapping both arms around him and pushed forward with all her might, bringing them both crashing to the ground.

As they fell, she quickly withdrew her hands so he wouldn't fall onto them. As he hit the ground with a loud thud, she vaulted herself off his chest armor and up into the air. As she became airborne, Katarina performed a midair spin, sheathed one of her swords, and drew a set of throwing knives.

"Catch!" She shouted, throwing them back down to the armored man, who was still lying on the ground. He rolled to the side, attempting to dodge them. But she had expected this, that's why she threw the knives in a fan formation. He rolled out of the way of one, but into the path of another.

The knife hit him square in the back, lodging itself into his armor. Her prey let out quick growl, confirming that it had punctured his armor.

Katarina landed on both feet, keeping her eyes on her target as he quickly got to his own feet. She didn't let him get any farther than that, and she threw another wave of three knives at him.

Her target moved so fast it was almost like a blur to Kat. He ducked down, dodging two knives, but instead of rolling to the side again, he charged forward, causing the third knife to miss completely. But what shocked Kat the most was not that he dodged the knives, but how fast he responded, let alone moved. Not even Garen had been able to react that fast during her many fights with him

_Damn!_ Katarina cursed as her target closed the gap quickly, bringing the distance to nothing in a matter of a second. She did the only thing she could've, she jumped backwards and focused.

_Now!_ The world around Katarina flashed, and she found herself behind her target, still in the middle of her backwards motion. Seizing the opportunity of being behind her prey, she threw six knives in quick succession. Each knife planted itself into her target's back, bringing his momentum to a halt. He fell to his knees and slid forward, dropping both his swords and letting out a quick cry of pain.

Katarina landed on both her feet, as she always did, and sheathed both her own swords, taking up a stance to throw more knives. _He wasn't too bad, I'll give him that!_ She thought. The fight was a bit satisfying, he did have her on edge for a moment, but that was all.

"Tough luck pal, but your time is up!" She said to her prey. He target, still on his knees, turned around to face her before dropping to his hands.

Kat grinned. "What? You gonna beg?" She smiled. "Hah!"

"Not a chance..." The man growled; his voice gave a clear indication that he was in pain. That and the fact blood was now dripping from his back onto the floor.

Kat shrugged at his response. "Didn't think you would, you don't seem the type." She smiled again, "So DIE!" She threw all six blades. They soared in a prefect line towards him. It was over.

Or so Katarina thought, until all six blades came to a halt in mid air. She couldn't stop her surprise from showing on her face. The knives had just stopped feet from his head and torso; one looked like it was almost inches from his neck.

"What?" Katarina blinked, still surprised. Even more so when she noticed that there was a purplish glow surrounding each blade.

"Not... yet..." The man grunted two words out, and the blades turned around, facing Katarina.

"Shit!" Katarina drew both her swords again. _How is he doing that?! He's going to launch them back at me! _

"Eat... this!" The man threw both his hands outwards towards her, and with that motion, her knives launched back at her. Katarina somersaulted backwards, feeling her own knives zoom over her head. She felt one or two of them go clean through her hair, her nice long red hair!

_Damn it! Better the hair then my face!_ She growled as she hand-springed herself into the air and landed on her feet, taking up her usual fighting stance again. _I better make sure he's down next time!_

He target was back up on both feet, but he hadn't moved much. Instead of charging forward, he launched one arm out towards her with a shout. A purple-black light shot out from his hand and curved around towards Kat.

_What the?_ Kat rolled to the side to dodge it and the bolt of purple-black... whatever, flew over her head. She scrambled back to her feet and snarled. _Full of surprises isn't he?_ The purple-black lighting, light, energy, whatever was still shooting outwards. But then the black armored man twisted his hand and grabbed onto it, and yanked.

_Now what?_ Katarina brought her own arm back to throw another sword at him.

But something hit her square in the back of the neck. _WHAT?!_ She didn't have time to resister what hit her, since she could feel whatever it was coil around her neck and tighten. She dropped both swords and grabbed onto whatever it was with both hands, only to feel an intense shock go through both arms.

She tried to look at her enemy, to see what was happening. That's when she saw it: The purple-black energy had formed into a glowing black chain whip with purple sparks coming off it. It had come back around after she dodged it and was now wrapped around her neck.

And the ebony man had the other end of it wrapped around his right arm and hand, and he gave it tug.

Katarina felt the effect instantly, and it pulled her forward off her feet. She also felt it choke her as she sailed through the air. She hit the floor on her stomach and let out a grunt. _Damn, this isn't good!_ She tried to reach for the knives on her waist, but before she could she got thrown to the side.

She hit the ground again, feeling the pain from the impact throughout her entire body. _I have to get out of this!_ She grunted from the pain and grabbed the energy whip at her neck, feeling the pain shoot through her arms as they came into contact with the whip. Katarina tried to ignore the pain and pulled hard on it, trying to stop it from choking her.

However her foe didn't let up and she felt it tighten around her throat again and launch her to the side again. She closed her eyes as she landed on her side, feeling her skin bruise from the impact. Katarina clenched her jaw, trying not to let anymore noise out that showed that she was in pain. Opening her eyes she saw her enemy spin around and bring his arm downwards.

She felt the whiplash instantly, and Katarina couldn't stop the yelp from leaving her mouth as she went airborne. The world turned around her, the only things she managed to make out as she spun through the air was Vayne on the ground and the black armored man as she flew over him. She crashed into the ground on her back, her head slamming against the ground.

Katarina let out a scream of pain, both her hands grasping her head as her ears rang. As she did, the energy chained whip tightened around her throat. She felt her vision fade as she began to lose conscious.

_Can't..._ She forced her eyes open and tried to get up, glaring at her enemy. But instead of just her enemy, there was now someone else behind him, someone much taller with a massive sword. _It's about damn time!_ Katarina thought, still in pain. Her foe was so focused on her right now with this whip that there was no way could see Garen behind him. If he hadn't thrown her across to the other side of the room, he would've seen Garen enter. Tough for him, now Garen had the element of surprise.

"Have at thee!" She heard Garen bellow.

_And he just blew the element of surprise._

**The Might of Demacia**

Garen brought his blade down hard with both his hands at the back of the black armored man's head. Instead of hitting him, the man rolled out of the way, his boots barely missing the edge of Garen's sword.

_Curses!_ Garen felt the impact from his sword hitting the ground through his arms. But it gave him no pause, he charged at his enemy as he tried to stumble to his feet. Garen swung at him with all his might with a horizontal slash. The armored man brought both his arms up to block it and the blade connected with the back of his foe's forearms with a loud clang.

The man staggered back and grunted, trying to reach for the two swords that sprouted from the scabbards on his back.

"Too slow!" Garen shouted and grabbed the man by the throat. He flung the man to the side with all his might. He was much lighter than he had at first anticipated, given that he was fully clad in metallic armor. He threw him a good six feet before he hit the ground and rolled for even farther, groaning in pain as he went.

Garen threw a quick glance over his shoulder, whatever that strange whip had been that had been holding Katarina by the throat was gone, and she was slowly rising to her feet. Garen then quickly glanced over his other shoulder, and felt reassured that Vayne too was getting up.

_He defeated both of them... the Sinister Blade and the Night Hunter._ Garen looked back at the black armored man, who was a slowly rising to his feet, but clearly struggling to do so. _Would that I could've faced him first..._ Garen thought solemnly before charging at him again.

"DEMACIA!" Garen let out his battle cry, swinging downwards at him again. The man tumbled to the side, barely getting out of the way yet again. But Garen knew he could not let up, and raced after him. He grabbed the man by the back of the neck with his free hand and pulled him; as he did so, Garen got a better look at the knives that were lodged in the back of his armor. _How many knives was he hit with?_ Garen noticed the blood dripping down from all of them. _He won't last much longer... he can't, not with those wounds_.

Garen threw him back to the ground, causing another loud crash and a moan of pain from the man. He pinned him down with one foot on his back and brought his sword down towards the back of his foe's neck, just stopping as it touched to his foe know the blade was there. "Yield!" He shouted.

His foe responded by making a gargling sound. "Ne... nev..." He couldn't finish and started to cough. Garen couldn't see it since the man was wearing a helmet, but he knew he was coughing up blood.

"You have been defeated! Yield now!" He shouted again, pushing down on the man's back with his foot, causing him to loudly grunt in pain. The man responded by coughing some more. After a good three seconds of that, he turned his head slightly as if he was trying to look up at Garen. After he realized he couldn't, he tried to talk again.

"Just... go to... hell..." Was he managed to say between cough, before the man's body went limp and Garen felt all resistance from his leg stop. He gave the man a few good nudges with his foot to make sure he was really out.

_He's done, he lost too much blood._ Garen let out a humph, satisfied that their foe was truly unconscious.

"What the hell took you so long?!" He heard Katarina growl at him. Garen turned around, only to see Katarina standing wobbly on her feet, one hand clutching the back of her head. Slightly off to her right, Vayne walked up, seemingly unfazed.

Ignoring Katarina, Garen turned his attention to the Night Hunter. "Where did this man come from?"

"Humph." Vayne responded, walking up next to Garen and looking down at the defeated man. "Those idiot summoners summoned him from somewhere."

Garen furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"The High Council claimed that there was something strange going on in the Void, so they had a couple of summoners investigate." She gave the man a quick kick with her high heel, and waited a moment before speaking again. "Looks like he's out for good."

"Is he even alive?" Katarina walked up beside Vayne, opposite of Garen, looking down at him.

"Maybe," Vayne drew the crossbow on her back and shouldered it, "I don't like maybes." She said and took aim at the back of the man's head.

Garen moved quickly, bringing his sword up to push her crossbow upwards. He did so just in time, and Vayne lost her aim and the bolt flew off towards the wall out of harm's way.

"No!" Garen said. "We need to find out where he came from, he's of no use to us dead."

Vayne turned on Garen, fuming behind her red glasses. But she didn't say a word, and after a few seconds, she strapped her crossbow behind her back again and looked down at the man.

"What the hell happened in here?!"

Garen turned around, only to see the Minster of Valoran Security, Kasubel, enter the room with a hand full of other summoners. Along with them were the rock creature Malphite and the angel Kayle, both of whom were looking around at the damaged room.

Vayne spoke first.

"This is going to suck." She mumbled.

**The Questions with no Answers**

Kasubel held his head in his hands, elbows resting on his desk, trying to piece everything together in his mind. Not even four hours ago had he heard the sounds of fighting, heard summoners running in the hallways. He had gone down to the Summoner's Chamber to investigate with Kayle, Malphite, and a team of senior summoners, only to see a devastated room, and three champions standing over a strange black armored figure. Getting the story out of them was easy. Getting answers from the High Council on the other hand, was not.

But now he had what he was given, and now he was trying to piece it all together. And so far all he had was this:

The High Council had noticed strange activity coming from the Void; how they found out was beyond Kasubel's reasoning (he suspected that one of the champions from the Void may have tipped them off). So they had a team of summoners try to investigative, and during that investigation they had ripped something that was apparently passing through the Void to Valoran from the other side of the Void out. The result was the carnage in the Summoner's Chamber.

_Fools! They didn't realize the dangers they took with Nocturne, and look how that ended up? Four dead summoners! Now they try it again, sure they were much more careful, but now we have a senior summoner in a comma, a hostile injured armored being, and even more questions!_

Kasubel gripped his head even harder. He didn't even know there was something beyond the Void. It was impossible! There's nothing beyond the Void! Yet the black armored figure and the six testimonies (seven if Vayne's was to be included, eight if Senior Summoner Arcal was conscious) proved otherwise. Hell, the black armored figure alone was proof enough. His armor, his firearms, they were far beyond anything Kasubel had ever seen. The damn armor that the man wore was on such a higher technological level that even an hour after they began to try and remove the armor, they had to give up. The only way to take it off was outright ripping it apart, and the Minister of Science claimed he would have none of that. He would have it delivered to Heimerdinger intact, or not at all. They had to resort to healing the man while he was still encased; that meant they had no idea if he was still alive at that point.

_It was perfectly clear when he woke up. _Kasubel sighed. It took himself, the Minister of Science, Malphite, Kayle, and another five summoners to restrain the man again. Thankfully they managed to do it and locked him up inside a mana-prison being maintained by five senior summoners, with a 30 minute rotation time. Kasubel was taking no chances. He wanted to make absolute sure that that man wasn't getting out again.

_We don't know if he's even human! It could be a humanoid voidling behind that damn helmet for all we know, laughing at us. _Kasubel bit his lower lip. He needed answers. But what answers, aside from this man's identity did he want?

_Damn it, I know damn well what answers I want_. He stood up from his desk and looked out the window of his tower. In the distance, the sun was setting, giving off a peaceful set of sunset colors.

_I want answers to the mystery of missing people of Valoran. I want answers to this damn man's identity. I want damn well know what lies beyond the Void!_

Kasubel let out a sigh. He would like nothing more than to push this off onto someone else, but since he had inquired from the High Council, they had decided that perhaps he head the whole investigation. And that his current investigations into the missing peoples across the land might be tied to this one.

_That is if the man has knows anything about the missing people. The only thing we DO know is that he isn't from this world. _Kasubel paused after that thought. _Never mind, we don't even know that!_

What he needed was an interview with the man. He needed answers. So far, every attempt to speak to the man had failed, with nothing but silence, and at one point in time, a middle finger. _Wherever he comes from, some of the customs are the same... he knows how to fling insults_. The fact that he also spoke the same language furthered the mystery.

Still, he needed an interview with the man. But how?

_Wait... an interview..._ A smile grew across Kasubel's face. _I know a man_.

He returned to his desk and took a seat, grabbing both paper and ink. _I indeed know a man... and he would jump at such a chance._

He made sure the paper was flat out and free of crinkles before he began.

_Dear Mr. Ram Steed..._


	3. Chapter 2 - Q&A

**Prisoner**

**The Institute of War**

Isaac walked up to one of the robed men sitting outside his glowing orange prison. As he approached, he waved his hand at the man on the other side.

"Hey! You!" He shouted, trying to get the man's attention. No response.

"You! You with robe! I'm talking to you!" Isaac knelt down to the man's level and waved again. He was likely a mere three feet from the man, separated by a glowing orange wall.

"There are five men in this room wearing robes Isaac." Mute's sarcastic remark slightly annoyed Isaac.

He chose to ignore it. "You!" He tried again, "How long have I gotta stay in here?" He asked.

Still no response, the man just kept his head down and his hands together as if he was in a deep meditation. Isaac stood up and threw his hands out to his sides. "Where the hell am I? Can you answer that?! I know you can hear me asshole!" He shouted at the man.

Still nothing.

Isaac dropped his hands to his sides, defeated. "Prick." He muttered and gave the wall a slight kick.

"No! Don't!" Mute's warning came too late. Upon making contact with the wall a bolt of lightning shot out from it and struck Isaac square in the chest, sending him flying backwards towards the center of the large orange walled prison. He landed on the ground on his back, with a thud.

Isaac groaned. "Damn... back is still sore..." He slowly got to his feet, looking back at the robed man. He was looking up now, and it looked like he was laughing.

Isaac didn't even let it bother him, had it been him on the other side he probably would've been laughing too. He just waved it off with his left hand before sitting back down cross-legged in the center of his prison. "What a douche..." He muttered.

"I tried to warn you. Those walls are pulsing with the same energy that was coming out of those canisters we found back in that Ascension base."

"Yeah, great help you were when I needed you the most." Isaac growled. Mute's avatar from the waist up appeared on his HUD. She was standing with her arms crossed, with an irritated look on her face.

"Hey! You're lucky I didn't get fried with the rest of your suit's systems when we got sucked in by that rift! Where would you be without me then huh?" She threw are arms up in the air, and then brought them to rest on her hips, slanting her pose. "Oh that's right! You'd be stuck in this energy prison with no one to talk to! And we would've even be in this cell if you hadn't gone all guns blazing on whoever those people were in the first place!"

Isaac started begin a retort, but nothing came out of his mouth. _Fuck... she's got me there_. He only closed his eyes and crossed his arms. It had been over a day since he had arrived in...

Wherever he and Mute were now. He had awoken to a loud conversation between two men with fancy robes concerning his armor. Much to his surprise, his wounds had all been healed... somehow, but he wasn't going to argue with the results; his back was a little sore still though.

_And how could it not? I have six knives planted into my back_. He let out a sigh. Those damn three... whatever they were. Sure he was able to take on the first with little issues, the second one was tougher but he beat her too. But by the time the last guy arrived, he was dead tired... let alone in massive pain from the injuries he suffered fighting the red head.

_Then again, I only bested the first two with my powers. Had I been without those, it could've been a different story_. Isaac thought, reminding himself that he shouldn't get overconfident.

Mute herself only came back online within the last two hours... after taking so many hits, the reboot had come to a stop. It wasn't until his armor's self-repairs had finished that he was able to finally finish rebooting her.

"Isaac?" Isaac opened his eyes to see Mute's concerned face on his screen. "You ok?"

"Yeah... just... confused." He rubbed the back of his neck and rolled his head around, trying to relieve some of his mental stress.

"Maybe I can help with that." Mute grinned. A knew screen appeared in Isaac's top left HUD, this one showing him a reply of his fight with the black haired girl from his helmet's recorder. "Good thing your suits recorder didn't short out with the rest of the systems. I was able to go over your fight and take a deeper look at it. Something you couldn't do since... well... you know, you were kinda fighting for your life."

"And? What did you find?"

"Well, watch here." The reply cut to the part where the black haired woman had rolled out of the way, and then vanished.

Isaac frowned. "How did she do that?"

"Wait..." Mute replied, "And now this." She showed him the part where he thought he had the red-haired woman, only to have her vanish.

"Yeah... and I know how that ended... trust me."

"But here's the thing... remember how all meta-humans have strange genetic patterns that any gene-scanner can pick up?" Mute asked him.

Isaac shrugged. "Of course, that's how they tell us super-human powered freaks from the "normal" people." He put his hands in the air and made air-quotations as he said the word normal.

"That's not the point Isaac... the point is that those two had no such patterns."

Isaac lowered his head and crossed his arms after hearing that. "What do you mean? They fucking disappeared, teleported, whatever! Normal humans can't do that, so they have to be metas!"

"But that's the thing!" Mute's face clearly showed her fascination with this. "They're not! Their bodies have no such genetic patterns." Three graphs appeared in Isaac's HUD, each one showing a genetic scan of a human being. One was his own, flashing blue to show his status as a meta-human, one was that of a "normal" human being, and then the last one was a scan of a woman, probably the red-head's.

"See? There the same! The "normal" gene layout and that woman's who teleported layout. There are no meta-human genes at all! She's-"

"Normal... on a genetic level that is..." Isaac rubbed the back of his neck; he was just getting more confused. _Like how the hell does my suit's gene-scanner still work while my shields decide to go to shit?_ "So what? There's nothing off?"

"Well..." Mute's gaze went off to the side of the screen. Isaac's HUD cleared itself so only Mute's screen remained. "That's the thing. I can only do a basic scan with these recordings; I'll need to do one of the same person, in person that is, to see if they really ARE the same."

Isaac closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. This didn't make any sense. "So where the hell are we?" He asked the million dollar question, knowing full well he wasn't going to get an answer.

Mute shrugged in response. "Who knows? Our GPS is giving us the finger, with its unavailable BS."

"And you're sure it's not just getting scrambled?"

"Positive... Isaac," Mute gave him a concerned look, "I think we need to look at the possibility that we are no longer on Earth."

Isaac shook his head. "That's insane. Now I know people on Earth don't even believe that meta-humans like me exist, but not even I believe in this demissional warp shit."

"But think about it, remember what Firewall said? That rift was like a wormhole. And what do wormholes do Isaac?"

Isaac let out a sigh. "Wormholes, according to science fiction, in a nutshell, are like gates between point A and point B that can span hundreds of light-years in distance." He muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Bingo! And, if that rift was actually a wormhole of sorts, it would make sense that we would no longer be on Earth."

"If that's the case," Isaac muttered, looking Mute hard in the eyes. "Then where the hell is Oracle and Firewall? They got sucked in by that thing too."

"Well..." Mute looked off to the side again, unable to answer.

Isaac didn't stop though, he couldn't. "And we don't even know if we actually got sucked into that thing! For all we know, we could be in some fucked up afterlife where everyone around us are a bunch of bloodsucking demons just fucking with our heads!"

This time Mute rolled her eyes and gave Isaac a good, "are you fucking kidding me", look.

"And you thought MY idea was crazy? The odds of us being in hell, let alone an afterlife, are none. There is no such thing as an afterlife; it's all just a bunch of anti-scientific bull-"

"Ok, ok... I get it... take it easy." Isaac shook his head. If he didn't stop her now she would never end her "science verse religion" rant.

"You know... you are sure chatty today. Where are my usual one line responses?" She jested with her normal smirk.

"Maybe..." Isaac gave her is own, "are you kidding me", look. "Maybe it's because in the last thirty hours I've been nearly killed twice, had six daggers in my back, gotten thrown around like a rag-doll by a seven or eight foot man, without any clue what's going on. And on top of all that, my only conversation partner is a SMART-ASS GRINNING, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONSTRUCT!" Isaac shouted that last line, venting his frustration.

Mute's expression didn't change. If anything, her grin grew wider. "Feel better now Sergeant Isaac Miller?"

Isaac just stared at her with a blank face for a few seconds before sighing. "I give up... fuck it!" He laid down on his back, staring up at the roof through his orange walled prison.

_I wonder what happened to the rest of my team..._ He thought. _Oh, right... sorry Jessica... if I can, I'll find a way back to that base and recover your helmet... might be all that's left of you for a burial._ He brought his right hand up to his head to make a salute. _Goodbye, Raptor._

**The Reporter**

The knock at the door brought Kasubel back to the present. _About time..._ He thought before taking a moment to straighten out his robes and sit up straight. _Got to look like I fit this damn job_.

"Come in." He said loudly.

The door popped open, and a young man with a fancy red robe, gold earrings, and a pair of white feathers that rose out from under his hat, entered the room. He took three steps, stopped, and removed his hat, reviling his clean cut hair, and bowing deeply.

"Ram Steed, journalist, seeker of truth, at your service!" He announced himself, in a fashion that seemed overly dramatic to Kasubel. He let out a quiet groan in response. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..._

Regardless of his second thoughts, he cleared his throat and motioned for the journalist to take his seat. "A pleasure Mr. Steed, truly. I was quite confident you would come after reading my letter."

Ram Steed placed his hat back on his head and took the cushioned seat across from Kasubel, folding his hands over his lap. "Pleasure is all mine, Minister. Not every day you receive such a request, such a scoop!" He paused, and then his smile grew even wider. "Such an excellent payment!"

_He really is as into his job as they say..._ Kasubel didn't know how to take that, given the matter at hand. _Better set the record straight._ He cleared his throat before beginning.

"Now, I need you to understand one thing first and foremost Mr. Steed.-"

"Ram is just fine Minster."

"Alright, Ram, first and foremost, did you obey the last set of instructions in my letter?"

Ram nodded, his eyes still shinning bright. "Of course, I had the letter burned the moment I finished it. I threw it into my fireplace and made sure it was nothing but ash myself."

"Good, then do you understand our need to be discrete with this matter?"

Ram nodded again. "Of course, it pains me to keep this a secret from the public, but I know when we are done, perhaps there will be no such need?"

"One thing at a time, Mr. Steed, one thing at a time. Sorry, Ram." Kasubel corrected himself. "Now, our... interviewee is still jailed, for now. He has shown no attempts at escape aside from the odd light kick at the prison walls. We confiscated all his weaponry, and there was an awful lot, but we were unable to remove his armor and he still has his magic powers, so caution must be exercised. I'd rather not test how well our barrier can hold him should he unleash whatever magic he is keeping secret from us."

Ram Steed nodded in reply, reaching into his pocket, pulling out a notepad. He grabbed one of the feathers from his head, gave it a quick blow, and put it to the paper. But he did not write anything, and simply looked back at Kasubel, his eyes practically glowing.

Kasubel took that as a hint to continue. "Now, as I stated in my letter, we know nothing of this individual aside from what powers we have witnessed and his advanced technology. Aside from that, nothing: no name, no age, hell we don't even know if it's a human underneath that damn suit of armor."

Ram Steed was already jotting notes down. "A voidling! Wouldn't that be humorous, but anti-climatical." He said, his smile never fading.

_Funny, I had the same thought. _Kasubel grinned at that. "Now then, I would like you to start your interview within the hour. Is that acceptable, Ram?"

"The sooner the better Minister! I already collaborated a series of questions for our visitor from beyond, more than my usual ten questions I assure you! But, as much as I would like to trust this... magical barrier you have set up around this man, I would still appreciate if I had a guard with me, given my... indicant of the past."

_You mean the time Shaco nearly stabbed you to death?_ Kasubel nodded. "Of course." He reassured Steed, and as if on que, another knock at the door. "Come in!"

And in walked in an angel with golden armor and a golden blade, and a face made of rock poked its head through the door.

"You requested our assistance Minister?" The angel planted her sword against the floor gently, resting both her hands upon its hilt. Ram Steed had turned around to see who it was, and he let out an "oh!"

"Will this satisfy you for your need for protection Ram?"

Ram Steed turned back around to face Kasubel, his smile even wider now. "It is PREFECT! I could not ask for better!"

Kasubel nodded. _Perhaps... this will work after all_.

Isaac found himself pacing around in the perimeter of his cell. As much as he enjoyed the solitude (or as close to it as he got with Mute around), it was missing something important. And that something was SOMETHING TO DO!

"Well... Want to go over the state of your suit again?" Mute asked him, as board as Isaac got, Mute had a billion different things to keep her occupied.

That, and being made of nothing but ones and zeros meant she really didn't have to be bored. She could simply power herself down at any point in time.

_We've gone over it three times already..._ "No need, unless something else is new?"

"Nope, other than a way to kill time."

Isaac let out a sigh. "Fine." This just showed how board he was, agreeing to this. _Never thought boredom would kill me. Usually during times like this I'd practice my combat skills... but with these... vultures watching me..._

"Ok, so just so it doesn't leave your head... your shields are totally fried. That transit through the rift we took made them completely and utterly FUBAR, the whole unit needs to be replaced. SO DON'T FORGET YOU HAVE NO SHIELDS!"

"I get it, I get it, I'll be careful."

"Thankfully, the armor's "hardening" still works, so if you really get yourself in deep shit, which you always do, I can activate it without any issues. As for our sensors, our gene-scanner and my data-scanner are all that's left. Night-vision, X-ray, thermal: all gone and fried, so for night ops you'll have to rely on the good old helmet flashlights."

"At least those are still working..." Isaac muttered, not too happy hearing this over again.

"Thankfully, your Dark Matter Assist, you know the thing that lets you use your dark matter powers without KILLING YOURSELF, still works. Up to a point! It was already damaged from our... travel, and you using it during the fight didn't help. So, please, use your powers at your own risk."

"It's always been at my own damn risk!"

"And mine! Don't forget, I'm in your head too!"

"You would never let me forget!"

"Ok, true. Now, back on track: one of those knives that hit you in the back busted the oxygen unit, so IF you find yourself under water, don't breathe too much."

Isaac stopped walking. "Worst. Advice. Ever."

Mute rolled her eyes in response. "You know what I meant smart-ass. Little breaths." She closed her thumb and her index finger together to get her point across. "What air is trapped inside your suit at the time of submergence is all you got."

"Then let's hope this building isn't in the middle of the ocean then, or we're gonna be here a long time."

"ANYWAYS... GPS still works, but useless right now, so I'm turning it off. Our locaters for the team still function but it's been damaged, so our squad can pick us up within a fifteen kilometer radius, but we can only pick them up within about a hundred meters. It sucks, but if they're out there, they'll have to find us."

"Better than nothing. That all?"

Mute paused for a second. "Yeah, your physical enhancements are all still intact, so there's no worries there. Self-repair obviously works, and above all, I'm still here! So all things considered I think we're ok."

"Great... so that leaves one question."

Mute paused again, her expression slightly troubled. "Yeah... where are we?"

Isaac shook his head in response, he had no idea. But just as he started to walk back to the center of the energy prison he was in, he noticed a door outside his cell open. In walked four new figures, a man in a funny red robe that made him look like some medieval noble, a more elderly man who Isaac recognized as one of the men arguing over what to do about his own armor, but it was the last two that really caught his eye.

A knight with golden armor that had the frame of a woman walked alongside the men, but it wasn't the armor that caused Isaac to raise his eyebrows. It was the pair of white wings that sprouted from her back, and the way they moved made them seem... real.

Then there was the other... thing. A humanoid shaped moving rock. It had hands, feet, a small face, and a massive rocky back, but it was moving.

"Mute?"

"Scanning... my God..."

"You don't believe in any religion remember?"

"No... This... this can't be..." Mute's face was that of total surprise. "Isaac... those two... they're not human."

Isaac looked at Mute's avatar, then back at the two strange figures. "That so?"

"Yes... that rock guy... he's giving of readings I've never seen before. And that woman... those wings, there REAL! There actually, biologically, real! And I don't mean attached, it's like she was born with them. Not even the most advanced genetic technology on Earth can do that."

_No surprise there, I'm a product of the most advanced genetic tech on Earth..._ Isaac noticed that the four of them we're walking up to his so called prison.

"Guess there not here to relive the guard..."

"What do you reckon? They've finally come for a chat?"

Isaac jarred his neck to his left, cracking it, and then doing the same for the right. "Only one way to find out."

Kasubel watched with caution as the black armored figure approached the edge of the prison where he and the others now stood. Kasubel turned to Ram Steed.

"Alright, listen. He can't hear us on this side, but we can hear him. In order for it to be two ways we'll have to weaken the barrier so he can-" Kasubel began, trying to give one last set of cautionary reminders to the reporter.

But the black armored figure had interrupted them. "So... who are you four?" He asked.

Kasubel looked up the man again. His armor was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was jet black color, all the scraps and cuts on it from his fight with Vayne, Katarina, and Garen had seemingly vanished. It had a smooth look, yet no light shined off it. Its otherworldly appearance was furthered by the fact that the helmet had a pitch black color.

_How can one see through that? _Kasubel felt that if he started asking the questions, nothing would get done. That's why Ram was here.

"Anyways, good luck Ram." Kasubel nodded to the reporter, and took a step back.

_Time to see if this man is worth his salt._

**The Interview**

**Ram Steed's Interview Notes with "Visitor"**

Ram: "Greetings. My name is Ram Steed, journalist and interviewer for the former Journal of Justice."

Visitor: (Silence. He simply stares at me)

Ram: "I heard you speak a moment ago, I know you can talk."

Visitor: "Oh so pricks can hear me! I here I was starting to think that maybe you weren't all ignoring me."

Ram: "It's a one way barrier, we can hear you, but until just now you couldn't hear us. But that's the important question. That question is, in fact this: What are you?"

Visitor: "I think the (raises his hands to make air quotations) important question (lowers his hands) is this: Where the hell am I?"

Ram: "You are inside the Institute of War, in the continent of Valoran."

Visitor: "The continent of what?"

Ram: "Valoran. Where did you think you were?"

Visitor: "I was hoping I was still on Earth."

Ram: "Earth? Yes you are on solid ground, or are you referring to the land you came from?"

Visitor: (Silence)

Ram: "Look, either you can go back to pacing around this prison for another day, or we can talk, and MAYBE, we can get a better understand of one another."

Visitor: "I'm not interested in you in the slightest... I just want to know where I am, and how the hell I got here!"

Ram: "I've already told you half of that. The other half, the how you got here part, from what I've been told that is, is that you were apparently crossing the Void to our world when our summoners pulled out mid... Flight shall we say?"

Visitor: (Long pause, before rubbing the back of his neck) "That... almost leaves me with more questions actually."

Ram: "Good, then we can have an exchange. Question for a question, answer for an answer."

Visitor: (Pause) "Alright, shoot."

Ram: "Back to my initial question, what are you?"

Visitor: "I'm a meta-human. There's other words for that too, like freak, abomination, you get the idea."

Ram: "Seems like your kind isn't well liked we're you're from."

Visitor: (Shakes head) "You don't know the half of it. Now, my turn, what is this... Institute of War?"

Ram: "The Institute of War houses the League of Legends. It is where conflicts and disputes are decided in a much more secure and safe fashion as opposed to armed conflict."

Visitor: "That sounds... rather convenient. More like there is no way in hell it works convenient. "

Ram: "It doesn't prevent all conflict, but it has prevented further wars between the nations and city states of Valoran."

Visitor: "Alright... I guess it's your turn again."

Ram: "What is your name?"

Visitor: (Silence)

Ram: "Again, what is your name?"

Visitor: "... Archangel."

Ram: "That's an odd name, is it common in your world?"

Archangel: "No."

Ram: "I see, alright, your turn."

Archangel: "The Void, what is it?"

Ram: "It is a timeless space of nothing, inhabited by creatures beyond mere human comprehension. And it is also the place you were traveling through on your way to our world."

Archangel: "So... it's... what?"

Ram: "I'm afraid that is all I can tell you, simply because we ourselves are not entirely sure what it is either."

Archangel: (Long pause) "I suppose that's your answer."

Ram: "Indeed. Now, some have claimed that you seem to enjoy talking to yourself, and I too find it strange that you make so many pauses. Is there something else inside that head of yours?"

Archangel: (Silence)

Ram: "Well?"

Archangel: "Maybe I'll let her answer for herself..."

Ram: "What do you-"

(A strange, small glowing blue ghost appears in human form, wearing armor with a striking resemblance to that of a suit of Ionian armor. There is mass surprise and near panic all around me from the appearance of this ghost girl, but I assure you, I, Ram Steed, did not falter.)

Ghost?: "He's been talking to me. So no, he's not bat-shit insane, close, but not quite."

Archangel: "Thanks."

Ram: "While that clears a great deal up, it still fails to completely answer my question. So, who are you?"

Ghost?: "Call me Mute."

Ram: "By your wording, I take it that is not your real name?"

Mute: "Nope! My real name is more like AIXB4599... something, something, something."

Ram: "I see, so Mute it is then, a pleasure to meet you."

Mute: "Manners I see, the pleasure is mutual."

(Mute vanishes)

Archangel: "So there you have it... I guess. Now then, my turn. So... (Motions towards Malphite) what the hell is that guy?"

Kasubel read over the interview for the third time while sitting at his desk with Ram Steed across from him. He had a hard time believing it. _That damn nutcase of a reporter... he gave me more answers in that twenty minutes then I've had all bloody week._

And Ram must've known that, because he was still smiling like a goon. _That, or he's thrilled no one tried to kill him this time_.

Kasubel skimmed over the whole interview, until he got to the last part, where Ram's summary was:

Ram: "So let me get this straight. Your name is Archangel, although that may or may not be your real name. You come from an advanced world known as Earth and you are a soldier there. You are something called a meta-human, a human being who has been enhanced by external means, and you were made so with the intent to harm others. And while on a mission, you found yourself teleported to our world."

Archangel: "In a nutshell, yet. And I'm here on this world called Valoran, in your UN-like building called the Institute of War, which governs all your conflict through... arena-like matches and there is currently no known way of me getting home."

Ram: "I'm afraid not, as we still don't know how you even crossed the Void to begin with."

Archangel: "Great... now how about you let me the hell out of here!"

Ram: "That is not my decision, but seeing how you did attack three of our champions, your odds may not be in your favor."

Archangel: "Of course not..."

Ram: "But here, for your boredom."

(I throw a book titled: _A Brief History and Overview of Valoran_ threw a small gap in the barrier near his feet)

Archangel: (Picks the book up and looks it over quickly) "A brief history and overview eh? I suppose I'll take what I can get."

Ram: "Thank you for your time Archangel."

Archangel: "Yeah... sure..." (Walks away, still flipping through the book)

**End of Interview**

Kasubel wanted to read it over one more time later, but for now he was satisfied. He returned his attention to Ram Steed, who was sitting cross-legged sipping tea, with a smug look on his face.

"I'll admit, Ram, you did much better than I thought you would. This is... a good start to solving one mystery." Kasubel said. In truth, he was more concerned with the mystery of the disappearances then he was with this man. "I'll be keeping this interview of yours for now. I'll forward you a copy once we've settled the matter."

Ram nodded in response. "I feared you would say that, but no matter. It was expected."

"Indeed." _Thank god, no "Where is my reporters rights" BS._ Kasubel stood up from his desk, and Ram took the hint and did the same, setting his tea down on the edge of Kasubel's desk.

"Thank your for your work Ram." Kasubel thanked the man as he shook his hand.

"Pleasure was all mine." Ram said, before adding "Now, about my... payment."

Kasubel nodded. "Of course. I was the one who had the largest hand in the shutting down of the _Journal of Justice_. That also means I can lift that ban just as quickly." Kasubel once again took his seat. "Granted you reporters keep your noses clean this time, I'll let you do as you wish."

Ram's face beamed at hearing that. "So then...?"

Kasubel nodded. "Yes, I'll lift the ban."

Ram struck an overly dramatic victory pose. "Yes! Thank you Minister! Now I have reporters to contact, offices to dust off..." He began as he bolted towards the exit. "And news to report!" He shouted that last response as he ran out of Kasubel's office.

_Hopefully he doesn't trip on the way out..._ Kasubel grinned as he looked over Ram's interview with Archangel or whatever he called himself. _Now time to do my job..._ He stood up and made his way out of his office.

_Damn, I already know what the Council and the High Council are going to do when they hear all of this._ Kasubel thought as he made his way through the halls of the Institute. _They're going to try to make him a damn Champion._

**Resolution**

_Interesting..._ That was the only word that came to Isaac's mind as he read through the book the reporter had given to him. That was, until he remembered that it had been given to him by a reporter.

_A bloody journalist... that's the first person in this world that I get an actual conversation with... a bloody journalist..._ Isaac found that funny in a cynical way. Back on Earth, everyone in TRANS-Ops was under a strict "no talking to press" rule. So having an interview with a reporter as his first conversation on this world was a rather humorous result.

_At least he gave me something..._ Isaac wanted to thank the man if he ever saw him again; this thick history book was just the solution he needed to his boredom.

"Come on, flip the page already!" Mute usurer him along.

"I'm not finished it yet."

"God, you organics read so slow!"

"Well, maybe you should take time to read it yourself rather than taking an instant scan."

Mute rolled her eyes in response. "You know I could just scan the whole book then tell you anything you wanted to know, I'd be a whole lot faster."

"But then I'd be back to being bored as hell. Besides, this is... interesting."

Mute snorted. "You? Finding something academic interesting? Who are you and what did you do with Isaac?"

Isaac rolled his eyes and looked up at Mute's face and her usual smirk in all its glory. "History is interesting when you don't know how it's going to end. Earth history is boring since every empire from the dawn of time is nothing but a pile of ruins now."

"So? There's plenty more to history then a pile of ruins you know. Like the battle of Thermopylae. Please tell me you've heard of it!"

"That's the one where the Spartan king took his army of three hundred Spartans went and got annihilated right?"

Mute rolled her eyes. "They fought against a force of over 200,000 Persians! It was amazing, three hundred brave men with their allies against a force that outnumbered them so greatly that they knew they stood no chance. They fought bravely and-"

"They died."

"Well, yeah but-"

"But they died. That's all that's important Mute. They went to battle and got crushed, they all died. The Spartans fought bravely, they held their ground, but they died."

Mute put her hands on her hips. "The hell is your problem? Never thought you'd get annoyed over the concept of death, seeing how killing people is your day job."

_I didn't choose this life Mute, it chose me… you know that. _Isaac let out a sigh. "Nothing, just… that's the thing with history. Everyone dies, that's it. Wars are started by old men and the young die for it. In peace, sons bury their fathers…"

"And in war fathers bury their sons. Herodotus said that, so what?"

"I wonder what the Spartan fathers thought of Leonidas when he took their son's off to die…?"

"Knowing Spartans, they probably thought it was glorious."

"And that is why Spartan doesn't exist anymore…" Isaac shook his head and continued reading the book in his hands. _Can't stand those war types… it's that same damn bloodlust for power and glory that lead the Halcyon Corporation to start experimenting on humans to try and make the next generation of genetic soldiers…_ Isaac closed his eyes for a moment. _All they wanted was money and power, so they fucked me, my sister, and my family over!_

_And now I'm all that's left. _Isaac opened his eyes and flipped the page, trying to avoid those thoughts. On the next page was a picture that showed a medieval-like crest. It had two gryphon's holding swords, crossing them just above a blue shield.

_The Demacian Crest. _Isaac frowned. _Demacia…City state on the west coast of Valoran… _

His thoughts were interrupted by Mute. "Hey, that crest… doesn't that look familiar?"

He looked back at the picture. "No?"

"It was on that big guy, remember?"

"No, I was too busy getting my ass kicked to notice the damn crest Mute."

"Well, it's the one and the same."

"So the big guy's a Demacian, what does that change?"

"Umm…"

Isaac kept reading. _Seems like this Demacia paints itself as the good guy on the block… seems a little too utopian to me. _He read a bit farther down before his eyes fell on the list of noble houses: _House Lightshield, House Crownguard, House Vayne…_

"Hmm…" Mute's voice interrupted him again.

"Hmm? Notice anything Mute?"

"Huh? Oh…" Mute looked off screen again, her usual response when she was unsure of something. "I was just cross checking what that reporter said…"

Isaac looked up from the book and at Mute's face. "I've been meaning to ask… what did we REALLY discover from that interview? From my perspective, it left us with more questions than answers."

"No, you're right there, it did create more questions. And judging by what the history book said about the Void, that reporter wasn't lying when he said that was all they really knew about it."

"So then… how the hell did the Ascension get across it…? And… why?"

"That… is a really good question… But whatever the answer is…"

Isaac shook his head; he knew what she was going to say. "It can't be good."

"I have a theory about it though…"

Isaac closed the book, using his finger as a bookmark. "Shoot."

"Ok, so we had those weird canisters back at the Ascension base right? It gives off the same energy reading as these prison walls."

"Yeah, and?"

"What if… what if this energy could be harvested?"

Isaac thought about it for a moment. _Harvested… an unknown energy… energy… power…_

_Oh shit… _"You mean harvesting this strange energy for a source of power?"

"Yes!" Mute's expression lit up. "My theory is that the Ascension has been coming back and forth from this world, harvesting that stuff to power a new generation of weapons. Remember what happened when that bolt of lightning hit that crate?"

"Yeah… it fried Jessica…"

Mute's eyes went downcast at that. "R-right… I didn't mean…"

"I know you didn't, but I get what you're saying." Isaac shook his head and laid back down on his back, looking up at the ceiling again. "A bomb…"

"Yeah… if that small crate was able to incinerate Raptor through her armor…"

"A larger explosion could turn an entire downtown district into ash…" Isaac closed his eyes. _Great…_

There was a period of silence between them.

"So…" Mute broke the silence. "What do we do."

"We do our job." He sat up, and opened his eyes, staring at the floor. "We find where they've been harvesting the stuff… and we kill them all."

"And we go home?"

"… After we find Firewall and Oracle."

Mute smirked. "Leave no man or woman behind huh? Sounds like a good plan. We've only got an entire world to search."

Isaac flipped the book back open, checked the page number and made a mental note of it before closing it back up.

"This is going to take awhile isn't it?" Mute asked. "Like… a long while…"

Isaac stood up, and glanced over his shoulder on a whim. Behind him, the elderly man was entering the room with the golden armored angel and the rock monster again. But instead of the reporter, the woman with the long black hair who he had fought earlier was with them. _Something tells me this is going to be my chance._

"Isaac?" Mute's head was tilted to the side. "What are you going to do?"

Isaac cracked his head to the left and right again.

"We've got an entire continent to search Mute." He turned around and walked towards the group. "So I guess we better get started."


	4. Chapter 3 - Judgement

**The Training Grounds**

**The Training Grounds, The Institute of War**

Isaac stood, hands at his side, looking out at the spanning bridge before him

_A bridge?_ He wasn't sure what to expect when they mentioned the words "The Training Grounds" but he sure wasn't expecting a damn bridge. _Maybe I was expecting another circular room, seeing how that's all I've seen..._

The bridge seemed to be a bit dated; grey uneven bricks with overgrowth on each side. He was standing up on a ledge that seemed to have an eight foot drop down just before the start of said aged-bridge. But what caught Isaac's eyes were the two large statues. The first one, at least a two hundred or so meters away looked like some kind of boar, holding a large staff with an even larger glowing crystal at the top. Behind that one, another two hundred or so meters, was that of a four-legged creature wearing humanoid armor and holding a circular shield and a similar staff.

And behind that... was a strange structure with six glowing objects surrounding a much larger diamond shaped crystal. _That must be... oh what did they call it... the Nexus?_

"So... what do we do?" Mute's face appeared in his HUD, "Do we just... cross it?"

"I'm not sure... those statues don't seem... friendly." Isaac wearily eyed the statues, before his eyes landed on those glowing crystals. "Mute, scan those."

"Aye-aye..." A series of circles appeared in Isaac's HUD and rotated around the first crystal. "Hmm... picking up high amounts of that energy again... what did they call it, mana?"

"Yeah, mana."

"Ok, well, there's a lot of it coming off that first crystal..." The scanner moved to the armored statue in the background. "And there's even more coming off that one."

"There called turrets, or towers if you prefer." A male voice said in Isaac's head. Isaac's right hand jumped to his helmet in response, gripping it. _The hell?_

"Oh sorry about that, forgot to mention that I can speak to you from back here." The voice said, it wasn't a very deep manly voice, nor was it a very soft one. It almost sounded like that voice you got when you called tech-support. Isaac didn't know whether to find that reassuring... or annoying.

_That must be the... summoner? _Isaac recalled what Kasubel had told him before he had entered the Training Grounds. "So... you're... a summoner yes?" He asked, hand still gripping the side of his helmet.

"Yes, that would be me. The name is Vega, a pleasure to meet you Archangel." Isaac could almost picture the man smiling behind that voice.

"The pleasure is all yours." Isaac groaned, "Sorry, not a fan of people being in my head."

"So I've heard, but don't worry, I can't read your mind or anything. I can only talk to you from here."

"And here being...?"

"That's not important, let's just say I'm almost like... a coach of sorts. I'm just going to guide you through the Training Grounds."

Isaac shook his head, he wasn't liking this. "The name seems pretty straight forward, so what do you need to guide me through."

"Look, I know you're from some advanced world and all, but from what you've told us so far, there is no such thing as magic on your world. So this is going to be a little... different from what you're used to."

Isaac bit his lower lip; he had him there. _Magic... had I not seen what I've seen over the last two days I would've laughed in their faces_. "Fine... I'll play your game." He muttered back, not all that happy with the situation. _If this guy was talking to me over the radio, I wouldn't be so paranoid..._ Isaac hated this "talking to his mind" thing. And he was on edge ever since his talk with Kasubel...

**20 minutes ago**

"No."

Kasubel cocked his head to the said at that. "No?"

Archangel made a refusal gesture with his hands. He was no longer inside the prison and now stood on even ground with Kasubel, a matter of feet away. "No. No one goes inside my head."

Kasubel sighed. _And thing were looking so good._ He gripped the insides of his eyes with his hand, rubbing them gently. He had been talking, err... negotiating with Archangel for the last fifteen minutes, answering his questions and giving him the ultimatum.

After his report to the Councils his fears came true, they wanted to make Archangel a champion. Kasubel argued with that decision. _We don't need another champion, we need answers! _He had protested, but the High Council's decision was final. To top it all off, they wanted him to talk to Archangel about it.

_I'm starting to hate my job..._ Kasubel thought. The talk had gone without hitch up until this point. He gave Archangel the ultimatum: Either he can join the League of Legends, or he can stay in this prison rotting for eternity. He expected a massive protest from alien human, like others had had from champions such as Brand, but Archangel seemed to be rather reasonable. In fact his only demands were that he was to be allowed to travel outside the Institute.

_I could allow that, with an escort_. Kasubel thought, the Council would have to agree with that. Archangel wasn't trying to kill anyone... not anymore that is. From what Kasubel had heard from the other champions, Archangel had powers and tricks up his sleeve that could not be taken away by any normal means.

Everything was going well... until Kasubel mentioned the part about the Judgement.

Archangel refused outright, without a pause. Kasubel didn't like that; Archangel paused regularly during conversation, taking to that thing... Mute was it? The fact that he refused instantly meant that he didn't have to talk to Mute.

_Who is really in control here? Archangel... or Mute?_

"Why not? All the champions have had to do it." _All but one..._ Kasubel tried to reason with the man.

"Because I don't want anyone inside my head." Archangel pointed to his helmet. "Things in here are not meant for the likes of you."

"And those things are?"

"My memories... and such, what did you think I meant?" Archangel protested.

Kasubel paused, folding his arms together. "That is a poor excuse."

Archangel took a step forward; he was now within striking distance of Kasubel. Kasubel didn't flinch though, he was confident that if Archangel intended to inflict harm he would've done it already.

Vayne didn't seem to share his thoughts however. She motioned forward, wrist-crossbow leveled at Archangel's head. "Not an inch." She spoke in her forever neutral tone.

Archangel turned his head to look at her. Kasubel expected him to throw out a taunt, but to his surprise (and relieve) Archangel remained silent, simply looking back at Kasubel before slowly raising his hand with his index finger out, stopping a matter of inches from Kasubel's face.

Kasubel didn't even blink.

"No one. Goes. Inside. My. Head." Archangel spoke slowly.

"Once again, why not?" Kasubel asked. Personally, he wanted to know what was inside the man's head. Kasubel was convinced that he knew something, anything, about the disappearances. _That is my primary concern, I don' t have time for this charade_.

"Because," Archangel took a step back, lowering his hand. He paused for a second before continuing. "Let's just say, whoever looks inside my head will be screaming for mercy the moment he begins to, browse, through my memories."

Kasubel wasn't exactly expecting that response. _I thought he was going to say, "Because I said so" or, "because I know secrets"_.

"What makes you think that?" Kasubel asked the man, looking him up and down again. _He's shorter then I had at first thought... is he 5'7? _

"Trust me. He'll be on his knees the moment we start."

Kasubel maintained his neutral expression. _A poker-face is my best card here_. "Well, I doubt that will slide with the Council. They won't accept a champion who hides behind a mask and refuses any attempt at the Judgement." Kasubel looked him up and down again. _I'll try to turn the tables on him_. "How about you remove your helmet and look me in the eyes before refusing me again?"

Archangel was silent. Kasubel sighed. _No, I didn't think that would work_. He opened his mouth to speak again.

"Fine."

"What?" Kasubel was surprised. _Did he agree?_

"All you want is me to look you in the eyes and refuse right?"

"Well... yes."

"So, fine." Archangel reached one hand up to the side of his head and tapped his helmet. There was a _sisss_ noise and the front of his helmet slowly began to slide upwards. Kasubel looked to his right and his left quickly. Kayle stood unmoving, Malphite stood with his arms crossed, and Vayne simply adjusted her crossbow, still slightly aimed at Archangel.

All three wore better poker-faces then Kasubel. _Well, you can't even see Kayle's face_.

Archangel reached up to the front of his helmet with both hands and pushed his helmet's visor up, revealing his face for the first time.

Kasubel took a good look at it, as he knew it was likely the only one he would ever get in a long time. _He's... young!_ Archangel had a rather handsome face that displayed his youth, he couldn't be older then twenty-four. The top of his helmet covered his hair, but Kasubel could see the top of the hair-line. _All his hair is shaved off.._. There was little to no facial hair, if anything it looked like a tiny bit of a night-shadow. _That's likely since he hasn't shaved in nearly two days... maybe more_.

But all those features paled in comparison to the scars, the many scars. Kasubel tried to count them all.

Eight?

Ten?

More?

The largest one started just above his right eye and went across his face to his left cheek, narrowly missing his eye and nose. Another one was similar to the one Katarina wore, but much smaller and slightly off to the side. The rest were all smaller scars that were scattered across his face: two on his right cheek, one that went vertically across his lips, nearly every part of his face had a scar of sorts.

Each one, however, made the boy look even tougher then when he held himself up straight with his face covered.

Archangel remained motionless, staring right back at Kasubel with his grey eyes. Kasubel looked him right back in those eyes. He felt a brief chill flow down his spine.

_There is no spark of youth in them. There... cold._

They were the eyes of a killer, of someone who had seen much.

_There the eyes of someone who is lost in life. The eyes of someone who has nothing left to lose._

Archangel took a step forward, his empty eyes never leaving Kasubel's. "No. One." He spoke, voice filled with authority. "Gets to go. Inside. My. Head."

Silence. Kasubel tried to think of what to say next. _Do I refuse him again? Do I push the Judgement?_

Archangel took another step back, and closed his helmet; another _sisss_ noise emitting as he once again became a faceless warrior from a different world.

Kasubel opened his mouth. "I'll see if I can convince the Council to skip that part." _I lost this round. I was expecting something more... cocky. Not something void like that._

It only deepened the mystery. Who was Archangel?

Isaac shook his head, taking a step forward and dropping down from the ledge. _I didn't think he was going to budge... but he did._ He thought back on his conversation with Kasubel, the so called, Minister of Valoran Security.

"I can't believe you got him with that eye trick of yours there Archangel." Mute said grinning. She was using his codename while he was "linked" to the summoner, since they were certain that whatever Mute said, the summoner Vega would hear it too.

"It's not a trick. I can't help it if my eyes unnerve people."

"Who knows, maybe you have another hidden power under those two jewels in your head."

"Jewels?"

"Tried to use a more interesting word then eyes."

Isaac rolled his "jewels" around at that response.

"Alright, are you ready Archangel?" Vega's voice filled his head again.

_I'll just have to get used to it._ "Yeah, so... now what? Do I just run across the bridge?"

"That would be a bad idea. You have to understand, those towers shoot mana bursts from those crystals. If one hits you, it's going to hurt. A lot."

Isaac eyed the statues, or towers, cautiously. "Ok, I'll keep that in mind. Still, what do I do?"

"The objective of any League match is to destroy the opposing side's Nexus, that's the thing with the larger crystal way in the back. In order to be able to damage the crystal however, you have to destroy every turret along the bridge.

"Sounds easy enough... but those things look like they're made of solid rock..."

"They are, that's why it takes a bit, and a little teamwork, to bring one down. The ones on the Training Grounds are weaker than the usual turret, but it should give you an idea."

Isaac nodded. Didn't sound too difficult.

"Now, are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, let's do this!"

Isaac took one step forward at Vega's signal, and suddenly felt all his strength leave him. He gasped for air and dropped to his knees. _What the fuck? _Isaac's eyes went wide open. Why did he feel so weak suddenly?

"Is- Archangel?!" Mute yelped, also surprised by his sudden collapse.

"The hell?" He growled in response. "Mute what just happened?"

"I... I don't know!"

"Oops, sorry, forgot to mention something important." Vega voice sounded a little apologetic, "When a League match starts, you're going to be... de-powered. That's so champions can't go a nuke one another from the get-go."

Isaac stumbled to his feet. "De-powered?! That would've been nice to know you robed prick!" He growled. He felt so weak!

"Sorry, I thought someone else would've said that. It's the job of a summoner to give the champion his or her power back as they gain this thing called, experience, from being close to something that dies."

"Dies...?" Isaac didn't like the sound of that.

"Yes. When a minion or champion dies, you gain experience as long as you were nearby. When you gather enough, the summoner can unlock one of your old abilities for you to use."

Isaac was totally confused, not to mention still getting over his sudden weakness. "The hell you talking about? Minions, death...? The hell is any of that supposed to mean?!"

Vega was silent. "They didn't tell you anything did they?"

"Fuck no! I just got escorted to this damn bridge!"

"Oh... this is going to take awhile..." Isaac heard Vega take a deep breath. "Ok, listen up."

Kasubel flipped through the reports of the disappearances again, looking for something, anything that would clearly link them together. But this was at least his thousandth time doing that, and just like every other time, he found nothing. _Just ridiculously high numbers, that's all that links each one together._ Some of the reports even had names attached to the numbers. One of the listings from Demacia revealed that an entire family of six, parents and children all, had been seemingly whisked away from their farmhouse overnight.

_According to the notes, Quinn interviewed the man who reported the missing, the father's brother. And they came up with a bunch of nothing, no suspects, no motivation, nothing! _Similar findings followed the other reports. Kasubel felt frustration growing inside him. The people of Valoran were disappearing and he was powerless to stop it.

_It's my god-damn charge! Mine! I may not like this job, but damn it, those people... _Kasubel snarled. He had to find out what was happening, the lives on the missing people may depend on him.

He asked the High Council to investigate the disturbances from the Void again; perhaps wherever Archangel had come from was responsible for all this. But the Council refused. Kasubel couldn't really blame them; what if they pulled another being like Archangel out? Only a more hostile one.

But that did little to help his investigation. Katarina and Garen had both already left for their respective home lands the day before, so now he had nobody to bring his concerns up with.

_My job. My. Bloody. Job._ Kasubel shook his head. He was getting nowhere and he knew it. He had known it since yesterday. Sure Ram Steed had gotten the information out of Archangel, but that didn't do anything for his primary goal, solving these disappearances. Sure they found out more about Archangel, but that was all.

_Maybe I should ask the man myself_. Kasubel stroked his beard. _But I'm not sure we can trust him, not yet._

Maybe; but he might just be out of other options...

"So? You understand know?" Vega ended his explanation.

"Yeah, I get it." Isaac rubbed the back of his neck. "Would've been helpful to have known all that BEFORE you sapped me of my powers."

"Sorry about that... here let me make it up to you right now!"

Isaac felt a breathe a fresh air flow into his lungs, and a feminine voice echo in his head. "DM Summoning, unlocked."

"Who was that?" Isaac asked, looking around trying to identify the source. "Who was that voice?"

"Not important," Vega was likely waving his hand around as he said that, "But how do you feel? I gave you one of your powers back."

Isaac looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers. He felt... something alright. But then again, he didn't know how it felt to have all his powers sucked away until a few minutes ago either.

"Try it out, see what you can do." Vega instructed Isaac.

_Alright... it said DM Summoning... so... THIS!_ Isaac reared his head and arms backwards, sticking his torso outwards as he closed his eyes, focusing his powers in front of him. He felt his entire body grow hot, and a brief pain whipped through his upper body. _Grr..._

A sound filled his ears; like something was charging up in front of him. Isaac let his instinct take over and pictured a weapon in his mind. A moment later, the sound stopped with a brief POP; Isaac opened his mind and relaxed, and hovering in the air right before him was a glowing, purple-ebony assault rifle.

"A SCAR, very classy." Mute grinned at the sight.

Isaac took a step forward and slowly gripped the rifle, shouldering it. A bar appeared on his screen that read "DM AMMO".

_Guess I've only got one clip with this thing._

"Not bad." The tone of Vega's voice gave of hints of admiration and surprise. "Honestly, I had no idea what it was going to do either." He chuckled. "Now, let's start for REAL!"

Several flashes of light occurred in the distance, and several three feet tall creatures carrying swords, shields, and staffs charged forward across the bridge.

_So those are the minions._ Isaac nodded to himself and raced after them. _Let's get this started_.

Kasubel watched Archangel from his Summoner's Orb. As the black armored figure made his way up to the next minion wave, Kasubel watched the play go on.

Archangel raced forward past the ruins of the first tower. He dropped down to one knee, and slid towards the wave, his rifle shoulders. Opened fired before he even stopped moving taking down three minions under a hail of purple bullets, each filled with dark energy. He then shot his right arm out towards the so called "siege minion", a bolt of purple energy flowing outwards. The bolt wrapped around the minion, and shaped itself into a chain. Archangel tugged upwards on the chain hard, launching the minion into the air, and then threw it towards the second turret. The minion crashed into the statue, killing the minion and damaging the turret. The last two minions, armed with sword and shield charged at Archangel. In a blurry burst of speed, he kicked the weapons of the first one away, and fired his rifle into its head. For the second on, still moving at blinding speed, he dodged the thrust, drew one of the four swords on his back, and swung it downwards, cleaving right through the minion's head.

Kasubel nodded. _Not bad, but anyone could clear a minion wave with less effort than that. _He thought. Either Archangel was trying this abilities out as they came to him, or he was trying to show off.

Whichever one of them it was... he honestly didn't care.

**Rest**

**The Institute of War**

"So, how'd it feel?" Vega asked Isaac. The two of them walked through the halls of the Institute of War, side by side. Isaac looked the summoner over. He had a white rob that covered his whole body, but he had the cowl down. He looked very young, younger then Isaac, with long blonde hair that draped down to his shoulders, and a few whiskers on his face.

Isaac shrugged in response. "Not sure. I had a hard time getting over that initial feeling, but it was rather interesting to get my powers back one by one."

Vega grinned. "Well, actual League matches are that simple. You have to worry about the other champions as well as your teammates. The Training Grounds is just a simple bridge after all."

"Yeah, not much for entertainment there..." Isaac was still on the fence about this whole thing. But he had to remind himself that in order to get out and have the freedom he needed to search this world WITHOUT being on the run, was to work with these so called "summoners".

Didn't mean he had to like it though. He had thought about making a run for it the moment Kasubel let him out of the prison, but his gut told him otherwise. _They likely had a trap or two set up for me on the way out. Then, I'd be stuck in that cell forever._

"Well, here we are." Vega motioned towards a door to Isaac's left and they stopped.

Isaac paused for a moment, and then cautiously opened the door. Inside was a decent sized room, with a dresser, a closest, bed, and a bathroom. He poked his head inside the bathroom and was surprised to see a shower there. _A shower? Maybe there not so medieval after all_.

"Goes without saying, this will be your quarters during your stay." Vega remained outside in the hall. "Better then that prison cell huh?"

"Much better, it's been days since I slept in an actual bed."

Vega nodded, smiling. Whether it was to Isaac or to himself remained up in the air. "Very well, I'll be seeing you tomorrow then. For your first actual match."

Isaac nodded; he was on the fence about that too. _A... League match... broadcasted live across the world... so much for subtly._

"You know," Vega scratched his whisker covered chin, "Most champions don't get their first live match until almost a month after they've been initiated."

Isaac shrugged. "I guess I'm a special case."

"I guess so." Vega nodded and turned to leave. "I'll see you bright and early tomorrow then."

Isaac waved after him and closed the door, locking it. He turned around and looked over the room again. "Mute, you picking anything up?"

"Nope, this room is clear of any bugs or people. No energy readings either... well... aside from those lights. They seem to be powered by mana."

"But no listeners?"

"Not that I can tell."

Isaac let out a large breath of air. Finally, he could relax, for the first time since he had been sent to the Solomon Islands.

_Feels like a world away... oh wait..._ He shook his head and made his way to the bed. A book was placed on top of the sheets. He read the title and grinned. _At least they let me keep that history book_. He would make sure to read it later.

For now, he wanted to take a shower. He had been trapped in that suit for days. In fact, the only times he got to open it was during the few moments a summoner would shove food and drink into his cell, and he had kept his visor down just above his mouth, so he could eat without revealing his face.

He did, however, get a kick out of that minister's reaction when he revealed it to him. He was probably expecting someone much older.

But for now, Isaac just wanted his shower. He removed his weapons first; he had only gotten his four swords and his knives back. His pistols and grenades had been confiscated completely. _More like they took them away to disassemble them._ After he suspected that, he was surprised he didn't hear any explosions from some summoner mishandling his grenades.

After dropping the weapons on the bed, Isaac went to the bathroom and made sure it too locked before taking off his armor. Starting with his helmet, he peeled his armor off, piece by piece. Usually he had techs and support staff to help speed the process up, but he wasn't going to take the chance of some summoner stealing his most important piece. Alone, the whole process took nearly fifteen minutes.

Once he was done, he was standing in his skin-tight under-suit before the mirror. After removing that, he took one look at himself in the mirror before stepping into the shower. His body was covered in scars, small and big ones alike. None of them however, left him disfigured. Horridly disfigured at least, not including the massive one that stretched down his back at least from where he took a series of slashes when he was younger.

_Best not to remember that day. _Isaac thought before turning the water on, feeling the hot water soaking on his skin. _Ah... yes..._ Finally, relaxation!

"So... feels good to finally shed the skin?" Mute's avatar popped up next to him, just outside the shower. She had to summon up her avatar since he wasn't wearing the helmet.

Before he could respond, Mute warped to the front of him, looking straight at his chest as if she was pondering something. "Looks like it healed nicely." She said, looking at the more recent scar on his chest. "I thought taking that tank shell to the chest would've left a much larger one."

Isaac looked down at the small samurai AI. "Just another scar, Mute."

She looked up at his face with one eyebrow raised. "Don't forget, if you die, I'm done for too right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Trust me, I can't be killed."

"You put that theory to the test too often." She mumbled. Her avatar floating around behind him now. "Looks like those knives left very small ones. They're about a fourth of an inch each, but not very big."

Isaac shrugged. It didn't bother him that Mute was looking over his naked body; he had been naked with his comrades before in the shower rooms. Having an AI look him over was nothing.

"Still self conscious about all them?" Mute asked him.

Isaac let out a sigh. "Slightly, but only slightly." He mumbled. As much as he didn't care for Mute to see them, he did care for other random people outside his outfit to see his scars. _People stare too much_.

_My outfit... even if there are any of them still alive._

He woke the next morning, sweat pouring down from his face from another nightmare, forty minutes before the decided time that Vega would come and get him. Someone had already delivered food and drink to him and it waited at his doorstep. After scarfing the bread and water down (he had Mute scan it first, he still didn't trust these summoners), Isaac had another quick shower and suited up.

When he was done, he looked himself in the mirror before placing his helmet over his head. If some little kid had seen him now, he would've likely thought Isaac was "cool." His scars made him look tougher, although Isaac knew that if the large one across his face had been couple inches down it would've clipped the front of his nose off.

A knock came at the door then. "Archangel? You ready? Match is in thirty minutes." The voice was Vega's.

"Yeah, just give me a second." He hollered back, leaving the bathroom to hook his X shaped sheathed across his back. When he was satisfied his entire suit was properly set up, he turned to leave the room.

But just as he walked towards the door, he turned his head ajar and looked at himself in the mirror again. After a few seconds Mute's avatar appeared next to him, her hands on her hips.

"Something wrong? You usually don't admire yourself in the mirror." She smirked.

"It's nothing... just feeling, a bit nostalgic." Isaac shook his head and placed his helmet over his head, turning away and reaching for the door handle.

_I hate mirrors..._

**The Abductors**

**The Conqueror's Sea, west of Demacia**

The sea tasted salty, it always did. But that's Capitan Reynolds loved about it. The cold air, the sight of never ending water, the taste of the sea, he loved it all. It was in his blood, being born n Bligewater. Reynolds had moved to Demacia at a young age though, but his love of the sea never left him.

_That is why I enlisted. _He placed his hat back on his head and left his quarters, and stepped out into the rain. All around him his crew shouted orders at one another over sound of the thunderstorm, as cold rain pelted them from above. One of his mates ran up to him, panting.

"We've lost sight of land captain!" He informed Reynolds, almost shouting.

Reynolds looked at his soaking wet crewmate and patted him on the shoulder. "That just makes it more interesting laddie. Get below decks and make sure the passengers aren't freaking out over nothing." He shouted back and continued to make his way to the poop deck, his head held up high as the rain flowed down from his hat.

_It's my job to get this ship, her crew, and whoever is taking refuge aboard her to safety. _His ship, _The Winds of Honor_, was a heavy frigate, one of Demacia's finest. They had been patrolling the waters south of the city when they had come across a small capsized passenger ship. Being a man of honor, Reynolds wasn't about to those people drown,

After reaching his favorite part of the ship, he turned to the navigator and his first-mate, who was looking through the spy glass.

"How long ago did we lose sight of land?" Reynolds half asked half shouted at his first.

"About five minutes ago cap! It's on the portside!"

Reynolds frowned. "Then why the bloody hell are you looking starboard?"

His first mate lowered the spy-glass and faced Reynolds. "The men claim they saw something in the water."

"Men are always seeing shit in the water, it's a god-damn ocean!" Reynolds shouted back, "Give that here." The first mate handed him the spyglass. Reynolds patted the man on the shoulder. "Tell that idiot at the wheel to bring us back towards the shore. I won't have us out this far during a storm."

"Aye-aye captain!" His first shouted and ran off. Reynolds looked through the glass out to the east. _What_ _the hell are you men seeing this time...? I'll take a quick look to ease their fears._

Instead, Reynolds found his own fears. He saw something in the sea, something that wasn't natural. It was a bit off in the distance, but close enough to make the many hairs on Reynolds' back stand up on edge.

It was a light, moving above the waters, suspended in air. _That's impossible, a floating light in the sea?_ He tried to take better look at it, but the light shone bright back at him. Reynolds grunted in pain looking away and dropping the glass. _What in the Void?!_

Reynolds' ears drums shook as an incredibility loud sound washed over him. He gripped the sides of his head and grunted again. _What was that? A horn of sorts?_ He ran up to the rails to look over his ship. All his men had stopped working and we're facing east, where the bright light was shinning at them.

"Get back to work!" Reynolds shouted at them.

"C-captain! Look!" His first mate screamed, the sound of his voice filled with terror. Reynolds looked back towards the light, and his jaw dropped. It was no longer far away, it was no very close, and meters above them, allowing him to see what it was.

_Its... it's a flying ship?! _Reynolds couldn't believe it, but there it was. The light was attached to the front of a giant, black, flying ship. Reynolds had never seen anything like it in his life.

Several more lights appeared from the belly of the ship, shinning down on him and his crew. He could hear his crew letting out cries of fear at the sight. The flying ship flew directly over them, the front of it smashing into the masts of _The Winds of Honor_, knocking each one over. The ship shook violently from the force, and Reynolds legs gave out and he fell to the deck.

_This can't be happening!_ He tried to stumble to his feet and look back up at the flying ship, only to see a hole appear in its belly and five small, man sized figures drop out from underneath. Just before the figures fell onto the deck of his damaged ship, fire ignited from under their boots, slowing their fall before touching down.

Each figure was clad in a navy blue, almost black, suit of armor. It covered each man head to toe perfectly, with a glowing blue section on the helmet where the eye-slits should've been. Each one was holding a gun-like weapon of sorts.

His crew scrambled away from the figures from where they had set down in the center of his ship. Some of his mates drew their swords, others pulled out pistols; one of his crew members, brave lad, grabbed a deck brush and held it out to defend himself with.

One of the five figures lifted his weapon and rested it across his shoulders, as if he was taking a walk in the park.

"Ladies and gentlemen..." The lead man said; his voice rather high pitched for having such a dreaded suit of armor. "Tonight's entertain is brought to you by the Ascension, complements of the people of Earth!" He announced.

Then all five men opened fire.

Reynolds gasped, as his men were ruthlessly mowed down before his eyes. His men tried to resist, some fired their pistols, others charged. But every shot either bounced off the attacker's armor and every brave lad had been shot repeatedly. The guns those armored men carried fired at a shocking rate.

"C-captain! What do we do?!" His first mate screamed.

"Simple." A voice came from behind Reynolds, and he turned to face it. Another armored figure had dropped down behind them, weapon raised. "We'll be taking your cargo."

"We have no valuable cargo!" Reynolds shouted, tying to make sense of what was happening. That's when it hit him, and Reynolds' eyes went wide open.

_The passengers._

The masked soldier noticed the change in his expression and gave a humph. "Bingo old man." And he squeezed the trigger.

The last thing Reynolds did was scream as bullets shredded his body.

**Summoner's Rift**

**The Institute of War**

Isaac stood waiting in another circular room. _Another dark, round room... who would've thought?_

Vega had told him to wait here to be... summoned to the Fields of Justice. Isaac thought that name was rather funny, since whoever won these matches likely wasn't always on the side of justice.

This room was smaller, so he didn't have a lot of room to pace around. Instead, Isaac found himself shaking his hands and making slight jumps up and down, trying to prevent himself from getting bored.

_Or, maybe I've just got a case of the pre-battle nerves._

Whatever he had, it was driving Mute crazy.

"WILL YOU STAND STILL FOR JUST ONE MINUTE?!" She shouted at him.

Isaac jumped slightly. He hadn't been expecting her to shout at him so suddenly. "Jesus Mute, what?" He outright failed to hide his shock.

"All you have to do is wait here in this room for five minutes while they finish preparations, and you're already jumping around!"

Isaac shrugged in response. "Sorry, can't help it. Never done this before."

"Never done what? You've fought plenty of times."

"I mean the part where this is live on camera... or whatever the people on this world use."

"You mean to tell me your nervous because you're going to shown fighting LIVE?!" Mute's avatar appeared in front of him, hands on her hips. "Just treat this like any other fight, the fact you're going to be on something akin to TV means nothing!"

He shook his head. There was a difference between this match and real life combat, broadcasting aside. "No, remember? The people I kill here might not stay dead." He reminded her. "They're going to... respawn or something."

"So what? Then just knock em' back down!" Mute pounded her fist into the palm of her other hand. "It's not rocket science... well... actually it's something way beyond that." She chuckled and scratched the back of her neck.

Isaac gripped the front of his helmet at that. He let out an exhale before shaking his arms again.

"You know... I'm starting to miss when things were simple..." Mute muttered, shaking her head.

Before Isaac could comment on that, he heard Vega' voice in his head. "Ok Archangel, we're summoning you know... better hold onto your gut, I hear this can really upset the stomach of first timers."

_Hold onto my gut...? How the hell do I even... ah forget it._ Isaac let out a sigh and looked at Mute. "Showtime."

Mute nodded in response, and her avatar vanished; her face reappeared in the usual spot on his HUD.

"Ok, summoning..." After hearing Vega say that, Isaac noticed blue lights appearing around him. Before he could get a good look at them they started to spin around him.

"Yeah Mute..." Isaac sighed yet again.

"What?"

"I also miss when things were simple." He said, closing his eyes as he felt the world around him started to spin...

...And stop three seconds later. Isaac stumbled for a moment, unable to stay still, shook his head and opened his eyes. They were no longer in the same room.

In fact, they were now outside, standing atop some kind of temple structure that had the Nexus just below the pedestal he was standing on. Beyond the walls of the temple, he could see trees as far as the eye could see; and in the very distance, another temple.

_I bet the enemy nexus is over there._

"So... you're the new guy huh?" A youthful sounding male voice said to him from behind. Isaac turned around and realized he was not alone. There were four others behind him.

The first was a grinning young male with messy blonde hair, who was did not look dressed for combat. He had blue pants, a brown rugged jacket overtop a t-shirt, and a set of goggles testing above his head. Isaac did find the overly large gauntlet the man wore on his left hand to be rather curious.

_More like Mute would be_. Isaac quickly glanced at the next one. This one, a girl with long blue pigtails that touched the ground, had an even stranger fashion. From the waist up she wore nothing aside from a bra and a bullet-belt, revealing strange blue tattoos covering the right side of her body. Her pink pants had only one complete legging; the other having been tore off. On top of that, she was carrying a glowing pistol, a rocket launcher with a shark design, and...

_She's got a bloody mini-gun. _Isaac didn't know what to say about this one. But what caught his attention the most was her grin. From the way she was looking at him, Isaac couldn't tell if she was happy, fuming, or fantasizing about him. Regardless, it kinda creeped him out.

The third one wasn't even a human. It was a massive golden robot, with steam rising from its back. It had an unparallel shaped head and a big round body. Its arms were also massive; each one was bigger than Isaac himself.

_That thing could probably crush me with ease..._ That should make him weary of the machine, but since it was on his team, maybe those massive arms would be crushing the other side instead of him.

The last one was even stranger yet. It looked like a massive spider, but its body appeared to be made of a type of crystal of sorts. Its arms had massive crystal formations that started from the forearm and grew out pasted its... hands? On top of that, its stinger had a blue tip that glowed, making Isaac a little uneasy around the creature.

_It's got yellow, pupil-less eyes... and it feels like there staring right at me._ Isaac looked each on over again, all of them were looking at him... likely.

"Well... interesting team we have here..." Mute smirked. "And before you ask... only two of them are human."

The blonde male took a step forward. "So..." He started, stretching out his hand without the gauntlet. "Name's Ezreal."

Isaac accepted the handshake. "Archangel." He replied. _This guy... how old is he? He looks even younger then Vega!_

The blue haired girl with the pigtails jumped up beside him. "Wow! That armor looks soooooo cool!" She shouted, clearly and very excited. She took a few playful jabs at his arm (at least Isaac hoped they were "playful") with her gloved hands. He looked at her; her smile was even wider now.

"Umm... you are?" Isaac inquired. She didn't take the hint; instead, she stared to jump around him.

"This... this!" She grabbed his arm and pulled it up, as if she was inspecting it. "This is awesome! Hey, hey! Can I have it when you die? Please! Please!" She went on.

Isaac blinked, dumbfounded. "No! I'm not gonna die!" He pulled his arm away. "Who the hell are you?"

The girl leapt back and took up a saluting posture. "Jinx! Reporting for duty!" She gave him a stern look and a salute.

"She seems... interesting." Mute muttered. Her expression showed that she was just as shocked as he was.

"Uh... hey..." Isaac couldn't find any other words then those two.

Jinx's expression returned to her giant grin, and her posture relaxed. "What? That's it? Awwww..." She slowly walked up to him and leaned against him, bringing her grinning face within inches of his helmet. "Have you already got a crush on me?"

_The fuck...?_ Isaac took a step back, causing Jinx to stumble forward. He shook his head. "Nah, I was just thinking we need some time apart."

Jinx stood back up, kind of straight, and cocked her head to the side, her grin never fading. "Aw... you suuuuuuure?"

"Oh boy..." Mute muttered.

Desperate to change the subject, Isaac pointed at the two in the back. "How about them, do they talk?" He asked.

"Yes we talk!" The spider approached him; Isaac found its voice to be kind of scary if he was to be perfectly honest. "My name is Skarner! The crystal vanguard! I am the only one of my kind, the brackern, to have awakened from our slumber."

"Is he going to tell us his lift story?" Mute chuckled. Isaac hushed her.

"It's good to meet you, Skarner." Isaac gave him a simple nod in response with those words. It seemed to satisfy the crystal creature, who nodded in return.

The gold robot spoke next. "I AM BLITZCRANK, THE GREAT STEAM GOLEM." It spoke in a very obvious mono-toned robotic voice. "IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU, ARCHANGEL."

"Yeah... same here." Archangel scratched the back of his neck. _It... seems nice...? But it is a robot, and robots tend to only function on logic... it could be as likely to crush me as to help me. _Only time would tell though.

Isaac looked over the four of them again. _Ezreal, Jinx, Skarner, and Blitzcrank... so these are the so called champions._ Isaac didn't know what to say, all four of them were still observing him carefully. Well, three to be exact, Jinx seemed to be more concerned with sticking her finger in her ear and looking at what came out of it.

_Oh boy..._ Isaac was speechless. A true mixed-bag these four were. And according to what Vega told him, there were a hundred and sixteen champions in the League of Legends.

_A hundred and seventeen... if you include me I guess..._ Isaac thought, but he really didn't feel like he was one of them. Not yet at least.

_If their all this strange and unique... well... I dunno..._

"Well, good to see you got introductions out of the way." Vega's voice echoed in his head. Isaac noticed that the other four champions all look away and their postures change. _Guess their summoners are speaking to them too_.

"Yeah, well... there an interesting bunch that's for sure." Isaac replied. "So what's the plan?"

"Remember what I told you? About how the matches usually go?"

"Yeah..."

"Good, so, you'll be going solo in the top lane ok? Jinx and Blitz will be going to the bottom lane, and Ezreal will be going down the middle."

"Ok... wait..." Isaac turned around and looked around. "Which one is top? Middle is obvious but..."

"North. North is top, south is bottom."

"Ok... so what about Skarner?"

"He's our team's jungler."

"Oh... oh right, forgot about that." Isaac exhaled, this was a lot to take in. "So, who are we up against?"

"Our team is fighting Ashe, the frost archer, Elise the spider queen... she'll be up against you in the top lane... Vi the Piltover Enforcer, Taric the Gem Knight, and Syndra the dark sovereign." Vega listed off for him, pausing for a moment. "She's on rotation this week." He added.

"Huh?" Isaac was confused. "What does that mean?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Vega replied, "Match starts soon, you ready?"

"About as ready as I'll ever be for this."

"Ok..." Vega sounded like he was taking deep breaths in and out.

Before Isaac could inquire, he felt a tap on the shoulder. He turned around to see Ezreal right behind him.

"So, you ready?"

_Why does everyone keep asking me that?_ Isaac gave him a nod.

"Ok. Not nervous at all?" The blonde boy asked him.

"No..." Isaac muttered before shaking his head slightly. "Ok a little... it's just this all seems..."

"Different? Weird? Strange? Something like that?"

"All the above I guess."

Ezreal gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "It's like that for everyone at first." He reassured him.

Jinx jumped up next to them. "Nope! Not me!" She brought both her hands out in front of her as if she was a human tiger about to pounce on a rabbit. "I was excited! I couldn't wait! Hell, I didn't even wait for the countdown to end!"

Ezreal rolled his eyes. "And you gave first blood... on your first match..."

Jinx's face froze. "Oh... right..." She muttered, before jumping around Isaac, looking out at the landscape. "Well it's easy! All we have to do is make that thingy over there go BOOM!" She waved her arms around in the air, displaying her excitement for everyone to see. "It's gonna be AWESOME!"

_Wow... just wow... _Isaac shook his head. _Seems like she already forgot about... whatever this first blood thing is_.

Jinx jumped straight up into the air, did a 180, and landed facing Isaac; broadcasting her massive grin. "Yes! Yes! Finally!" She brought both her arms up and shook them in excitement. "Come on new guy! Let's see who gets FIRST BLOOD!" She grabbed the mini-gun at her waist and charged off.

Isaac and Ezreal just watched her run off. The blonde boy let out a sigh. "And there she goes. Well..." Ezreal took a few steps ahead of Isaac before turning around and giving him a thumbs-up. "Good luck!" He encouraged him, and bolted off.

"GOOD LUCK ARCHANGEL!" Isaac heard Blitzcrank's mono-toned voice from behind him, "I TOO SHALL GIVE YOU A PAT FOR GOOD LUCK!"

Before Isaac could even respond, he felt a massive force hit him in the shoulder, causing him to stagger forward. After he regained his balance he spun around to find the golem already running off after Jinx.

_Jesus..._ Isaac rubbed his right shoulder where Blitzcrank had "patted" him.

"Hey, at least he meant well!" Mute snickered.

"Oh hush..."

Skarner moved up next to Isaac, gave him a nod, and scurried off, leaving Isaac alone on the platform.

Isaac sighed. What had he gotten himself into? _Well, no point dwelling on it now..._

He cracked his neck to each side. "Let's do this thing." He muttered to himself and took a step forward.

That's when Isaac heard the voice in his head again, that authority-filled feminine voice. It said only one line to him.

"WELCOME, TO SUMMONER'S RIFT!"


	5. Chapter 4 - Summoner's Rift

**First Blood**

**Summoner's Rift**

"Alright, head to the first tower in the top lane." Vega instructed Isaac.

Before Isaac could respond, he felt something tugging at him. _What the hell is with this feeling?_ He thought. Something was drawing him northward, towards the "top lane". Before Isaac could figure it out, he found himself jogging north.

"The hell?" Isaac muttered. _It's like something's influencing my movements..._

"Oh, forgot to mention..." Vega began, "You see, the champion is technically supposed to follow the summoner's orders when on the Fields of Justice. That strange feeling you probably have right now, that's your body responding to my orders."

_So I'm just a toy soldier now? _Isaac snarled. "I don't like this..."

He heard Vega sigh. "Yeah, I didn't think you would. Look, it's not like I have FULL control of your body's movements from back here, just the... direction. Like... I can tell you what abilities to use, who to attack, and where to go... but the actual fighting is still up to you. Like I can't tell you... left hook, kick, rabbit punch! That kind of stuff."

"But you do have... influence over things like location and who I'm... targeting? Am I getting that right?"

"Yes! Bingo!"

"I still don't like it." Isaac muttered, "But I'll roll with it."

"Well... to be perfectly honest Archangel, you really don't have a choice when you're on the Fields of Justice."

_Of course I don't..._ Isaac rolled his eyes, and realized he had reached the outer tower of his lane. Just like Vega had explained, as soon as he jogged up to the tower, the "tugging" feeling vanished and he had his own free will again.

_This is going to take some getting used to_. "Vega, can you give me another order quick?"

"Uh... yeah? What's up?"

"I want to get a better feel for this... influence thing."

"Alright, how about... there?" As soon as he said that Isaac felt the influence of the summoner, telling him to walk to a spot in the open a few meters from where he stood, where a small blue light was flashing. And just like before, Isaac felt the "need" to obey.

_Oh boy..._ He thought as he walked towards the designated area, _this is going to take A LOT of getting used to_...

He could hear Mute snickering. "Wow, I didn't take you for being a submissive type Archangel."

"Mute, shut up."

"Not a chance!" She grinned at him through her favorite spot in his HUD.

"Well? How does it feel now?" Vega asked him.

"Still feels strange, but I'll get used to it." Isaac answered him. To be truthful, he wasn't sure he was ever going to get used to it.

Before he could say anything else though, he heard that strange female voice again. "MINIONS HAVE SPAWNED."

"Ok, Archangel, prepare to summon your rifle." Vega ordered.

Isaac nodded in response. "Ok, but why wait?"

"I just want the minions to move up a bit further. We don't know how long you can actually sustain those summoned weapons for."

"He's got a point." Mute agreed with the young summoner.

_Yeah, he does... I would rather not test the theory of, "how long can the gun made of dark matter last for", in the middle of a fight._

The wait was only a few seconds. "Ok, summon now."

Isaac felt the influence again, ordering him to do as the summoner had instructed. He complied, summoning his dark matter rifle, and shouldered it. As he did, the minions charged past him.

"Follow those little bastards." Vega ordered him.

"Roger." Isaac fell in behind the minions, cautiously scanning ahead for targets. It didn't take long for them to appear: six purple colored minions moved in a single file line towards his minions. And behind them was a tall woman with almost purple skin. Her black clothing seemed to start and stop at random points on her body, and formed an outline of a helmet around her head, with five spikes rising up behind her red hair.

Isaac didn't waste a second after seeing her. "Mute, scan target!" He ordered.

"Got it." Mute replied, and after a second she reported in. "Confirmed, that's Elise the spider queen. She has the ability to shape-shift to and from a large black spider at will, so watch out."

_I should just pick her off here and now..._ Isaac thought, and prepared to do just that.

"Archangel, target those minions. Take them down." Vega ordered him.

_Why?_ Isaac was conflicted. The enemy champion was RIGHT THERE! She was easily in range, and seeing how she towered over the minions, it wouldn't be difficult at all for Isaac to peg her in a vital spot.

But he felt something tugging at him to obey, something he just couldn't ignore. So instead, he found himself firing at the minions, with Elise doing the same.

_The hell is this guy's logic? _Isaac questioned as he took a melee minion down. _Why am I taking this... cannon fodder down instead of the champion?_

"Once we hit level three, we'll try to engage her." Vega advised him.

"Why wait? I can hit her from back-" Isaac stopped talking the moment he saw some form of red acid come flying his way. "Whoa!" He shouted, dropping down, dodging the red liquid.

"The hell was that?!" He shouted, but one look at Elise's amused face told him everything. _Oh that bitch... she spat acid at me?_

"Not bad, let's see how long you can last..." Elise chuckled, taking a few steps back before focusing her attacks on Isaac's minions yet again.

Correction, she finished off his last minion.

_That was quick..._ there were still two more minions on Elise's side. But something caught Isaac's eye, and that was a brief flash of light that bathed Elise for a moment before vanishing.

_Huh?_ Isaac took aim at another minion, and as he fired his rifle, killing it, he heard Vega's voice in his head again.

"She's level two? How...?" Vega seemed confused. Isaac felt the tugging feeling again, urging him to back pedal towards his tower. He complied, but kept his eyes on the spider woman. Elise followed him back to his turret, smiling.

"The spider I," Isaac heard her say, "And you the FLY!" Elise shouted, spitted another wave of red liquid at him.

_Nice try_. Isaac grinned, and began to drop to his stomach to dodge it again.

"Archangel don't!" Vega shouted at him, and Isaac felt the urge to continue moving towards the turret even stronger now. To Isaac's surprise, his body seemed more interested in listing to the summoner as opposed to his own will.

The result: instead of dodging Elise's attack or moving towards the turret, Isaac felt himself stumble, his body movements similar to that of a drunken man. It also made it impossible to move out of the way of Elise's acid.

The attack hit him dead on, red liquid splashing onto his helmet, visor, and torso. Warning sounds and lights went off in Isaac's HUD, with the words "HIGH ACIDIC LEVELS DECECTED" on red flashing on the center of his vision.

_Shit! Shit!_ Isaac cursed, dropping his rifle and trying to wipe the acid off his helmet. He could hear it eating away through his armor, making a loud hissing sound.

"Don't just stand there! MOVE!" He heard Vega shout at him again, feeling that urge to obey course through his body again.

_Not now you fucking idiot!_ Isaac grimaced. _It's you fucking fault I'm in this situation to begin with!_

As Isaac's feet started to move on their own, he looked up to find his attacker, only to see that Elise had vanished. In her place, were two spiders half his height, leaping right at him.

Isaac tried to roll out of the way, but he felt Vega's orders urging him to move backwards even stronger now; the result was him stumbling again, getting nowhere and defiantly not getting off the line of attack.

_Oh shit!_ Isaac braced himself. Both spiders slammed into him, causing him to nearly fall over. One spider grabbed onto his leg, biting at his knee. The other climbed onto his back and began to gnaw at his helmet.

"Get the fuck off me!" Isaac shouted in frustration, twisting his body around and kicking his leg out, trying to fight the things off him.

"Archangel! I said move it! Obey!" Vega shouted at him, his voice likewise filled with anger and frustration. Isaac couldn't fight the spiders and maintain his will at the same time, causing him to start to move backwards again.

However, the pressure from the spiders caused him to lose his footing, and he fell straight onto his back.

_Oh fuck me!_ Isaac cursed, angrily drawing a sword with each hand, and trying to swat the spiders away with his blades.

"What the hell are you doing?! Get up!" Vega screamed at him again.

"I'M BUSY YOU PRICK!" Isaac shouted back, but found himself trying to stand back up. That gave the spiders a perfect chance; they both jumped onto his arms, pinning him to the ground and crippling his movement. Isaac groaned in pain as they pushed him back onto his rear. _Little bastards!_

Isaac heard a cackling laugh that made his skin tingle. He also felt a chill grow down his spine. _Uh oh_. He looked up, and caught a glimpse of a much larger black spider leaping onto him from above. Isaac grunted in pain as two of the larger spider's limbs slammed into his shoulders with enough momentum to piece his armor.

"Gah!" Isaac yelped in pain as he felt both his shoulder tear open. _This is bad!_

"Archangel!" Isaac heard Mute shout, her face appearing in his HUD with a worried expression.

_Harden, Mute harden!_ Isaac tried to open his mouth, but instead of an order, all that came out was a gasp of pain. _Harden damn it!_

"Is this all you can muster?!" Isaac heard an echoing, evil voice boom in his head. He glared at the larger spider as it drove its limbs further into his shoulder.

_That voice... wait... Is that giant spider Elise?!_ Isaac's eyes went wide. _Fuck! Of course it is... she's a bloody shape-shifter!_

"Pathetic!" Elise taunted him again, before rearing her head back and driving her fangs forward. Right towards Isaac's now exposed neck.

_Can't move!_ Isaac couldn't do anything; save watch her body drive forwards.

Then he felt her fangs rip out his throat. The pain was immense. But Isaac couldn't shout out, he could only cough, causing blood to splatter all over the spider queen's face. As his vision faded and death took him, Isaac could barely hear one last line of words enter his ears.

"FIRST BLOOD!"

_Damn..._ Isaac's eyes closed, and death took him.

When he opened them again, he was lying on the platform he had first stood on when he arrived at Summoner's Rift.

_I'm... alive?_ Isaac's hand shot to his neck, expecting to feel half of it missing. _My... neck is fine..._ Isaac blinked twice, dumbfounded. He could've sworn Elise had torn out his throat, the entire thing perhaps.

"What you doing? Did you forget that you respawn here?" Mute's voice filled his helmet.

_Oh, right_. Isaac inhaled, and exhaled.

"How long was I out for?" He asked, getting back up on his feet.

"Fifteen seconds, that's it." Vega replied. "That was pretty sad Archangel. Mind telling me what that was all about?"

Isaac snarled. "I was about to ask you the same question. What the hell were you thinking?!" He was pissed. Not just because the summoner had been barking orders at him the whole time during that struggle, not just because Isaac personally hated the feeling of his free will being taken away, but because that damn kid had been yelling at Isaac as if the whole situation had been his own fault when Isaac knew damn well he would've been fine if Vega had kept his mouth shut in the first place.

Vega however, did not seem to understand. "What do you mean what the hell was I thinking? Elise had a level advantage on you, so the only way to avoid her owning your ass was to move back to the tower. All champions should know-"

"Well I'm not from your god-damn world remember?!" Isaac fired back at the summoner. "Answer this, summoner: how many times have you fought with your life on the line? How many times have you been inches away from death?"

Silence.

"So when I tell you that when I'm fighting... you CUT the CRAP, and let me do what I've been doing since I was A FUCKING TEENAGER!" Isaac vented his anger out on the summoner.

He instantly regretted his outburst. _Damn it Isaac, what the hell are you doing?! He doesn't need to know about your past, no one on this side save from you and Mute needs to recall any of that._

"Wow, the sound of a screaming, angry Archangel is a rare sound indeed." Mute gave her two cents in on the matter.

Isaac took a deep breath, calming himself before speaking again. "Look, Vega, I understand this is your show, your field, your turf. I'll follow your orders, as a champion, but my only request, is that you let me do what I've done my whole life, ok?"

It was another three seconds until he heard Vega's voice again. "Alright. Deal. Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself back there. I totally forgot that this is still your first time on the Fields of Justice." To his credit, Vega sounded sincere.

Isaac nodded. "Thanks. Sorry for blowing up, I'm just not a fan having someone barking orders at me like I can't hear them when there's a spider nearly twice my size ripping my insides out."

"Yeah, fair enough. Now then, get moving back up to the turret!"

"Roger." Isaac replied, and found himself obeying the summoner's orders again.

**Second Blood**

Isaac picked off another minion with ease, keeping an eye on the spider queen's movements as he did. He and Elise had been staring one another down for the last seven minutes, eying each others movements carefully (or at least she seemed like she had been). On the way back to his "lane" The three of them (Isaac, Mute and Vega) had come up with a plan: play it safe, and make it look like Isaac was still a rookie with obedience issues. Every now and then Isaac would stumble, and Elise would try to seize the opportunity, whether it was spitting acid at him, or trying to hit him with some exploding suicide spider. Each time, Isaac would make a last second dodge, and so far it was working; Elise clearly wasn't taking Isaac seriously.

_Although some of those dodges we're sheer luck..._ Isaac shook his head, he did get nicked a few times, barely, but still he had taken a little bit of damage; his armor's black paint had been eroded away from splashes of acid from both Elise's spitting and her exploding spider. He still had a hard time resisting the urge to shoot at her, but Vega had insisted on him not doing so.

"If you shoot at her, you'll piss the minions off and they'll go straight for you. And on top of that you need to conserve your ammo! It's difficult to farm the minions if you're using close range attacks against a champion with long range." He had advised him.

_Sure... why not... _Isaac had thought. _If this was REAL combat, I could've picked her off ages ago and moved on... that's the joy of having a gun._

Isaac's concentration broke when Elise dove into the bushes to the north of Isaac.

"Mute, track her!" Isaac ordered his trusted partner.

"Can't, those bushes have some sort of magic field surrounding them. It's blocking my sensors."

_You mean what little of our sensors that still work._ "Vega?" Isaac tried asking his other partner.

"Careful, she's likely going to try jumping you."

"Ok, if she does..."

"I know I'll let you do your... job." Vega seemed hesitant about it still, but Isaac didn't really care. As long as he was able to fight properly, the summoner's opinion came second.

A chill flowing down his spine told him that he would put that to the test very soon.

Isaac somersaulted forwards on instinct. As he rolled, he heard Elise's spider-legs hitting the dirt right where he once stood. He finished his movement while spinning around, shouldering his rifle and taking aim.

_Got you_. Isaac squeezed the trigger as Elise charged at him. The rounds from his DM summoned rifle hit Elise several times in the body, causing her to scream as she vaulted into him. Isaac dropped his rifle intentionally as she slammed into him, using his hands to grab onto her fangs. _No neck ripping this time!_ He grimaced as he slammed into the earth, taking the full on force of her weight. _Damn, for someone so slender in human form, she weights a ton as a damn spider!_

He heard Elise snarl and howl at him as the two fought in the dirt; her spider limbs clawing at him, trying to pierce his shoulder and neck again. Isaac grunted as he fought her, lifting her fangs and head upwards so she couldn't see, making it increasingly difficult for her to hit him; all the while trying to dodge her increasingly random strikes.

"Spiderlings behind you and closing fast!" Mute warned him.

_Now!_ "Mute now!" Isaac called out to his AI.

"Hardening armor now!" Mute responded, and Isaac's vision flashed yellow. His head jolted forwards as the smaller spiders slammed into his back. At the same time, Isaac brought his left arm back, letting go of the spider queen's mandible.

"Eat this!" Isaac shouted, driving his hardened first forward with all his might, punching Elise square in the face. The larger spider shrieked in pain as Isaac cracked her skull, her head moving awkwardly from the force. She jumped off him, stumbling as she tried to get away. Isaac jumped up and reached for his rifle, but her spider minions got there first, kicking it away and jumping back at Isaac.

_Damn little bastards!_ Isaac unsheathed two swords, taking one in each hand. With his right hand he made a downwards stabbing motion, catching the first of the two spiderlings at the top of the head. The sharp blade pieced the spider's body with ease, splitting its head and emerging underneath, pinning it to the ground. For the second spider, which was leaping, Isaac slashed horizontally with his left, cutting the spiderling's head in half. Isaac didn't even blink as black blood sprayed his visor, and the spider's corpse flew into his chest before falling into the ground.

_Come out, come out, wherever you are..._ Isaac spun around, wiping the blood from his face and trying to spot Elise. _There!_ He saw her dart out of the bushes on the far side, stumbling onto her knees before limping towards her tower. She looked back at him and snarled, clearly pissed off at him.

"Archangel!" Vega, who had remained silent the whole time shouted at him. "Don't let her escape."

"I never planned on it." He replied, and waved his right arm forward, channeling his dark power into his arm all while picturing a whip. His dark matter whip flung out from his arm, seeking his target. Elise shrieked as she tried to dodge the incoming attack, but with no avail. Isaac's whip twisted around her neck, and he yanked back. Elise screamed again as she soared through the air towards Isaac.

_Overconfidence gets you killed..._

Still holding his bloody sword, Isaac drove his left arm forward to meet the fast approaching Elise. She screamed as his sword ripped into her abdomen and out through her back. Her arms grabbed onto his left as he held her there in the air, trying to push him off as she howled in pain. Isaac twisted his left blade in response, causing her to scream even louder.

"Die already you eight-legged bitch!" Isaac shouted at Elise. Her hands gripped his helmet, and she brought her head forwards to meet his, spitting red liquid onto his visor.

_Shit..._ Isaac shook his head, trying to get the acid off as the warnings echoed in his ears. _Got to get the acid of quickly... wait..._ Isaac thought of an idea. He reared his head back, freeing himself of Elise's weakening grasp, and smashing his forehead into Elise's face.

The spider queen wailed even louder this time as Isaac's head butt smashed her teeth, and her own acid ate away at her flesh. But her wailing ceased within a second, and her body went limp.

_Finally..._ Isaac shook his head. _Persistent..._ He pushed the corpse off his blade, Elise's body falling lifelessly onto the ground.

"AN ENEMY HAS BEEN SLAIN." He heard the female voice announce in his head again.

"Wow... that was messy." Mute muttered.

_Indeed it was..._ Isaac shook his head. It was going to be a very long match if every champion took that long to kill.

"Hmm... ok, you've made your point." He heard Vega say. "I'll sit back when the fighting starts, you seem to have it under control." The summoner chuckled.

"Thanks... but now what? The tower?" Isaac looked down the lane, his minions were charging Elise's turret.

"Yeah, but be quick about it! Elise will be back up in-"

Isaac felt another chill, and he ceased listening to the summoner. _Where?!_ Isaac turned around, but saw no one.

He never saw his new opponent come charging over the cliff beside him.

Isaac DID feel a massive force slam into his back, grabbing hold of him.

_What the fuck?!_ Isaac looked down, only to see a pair of massive, metal gauntlets the size of a large child holding him. He quickly turned his head around, and was rewarded with the sight of a grinning pink haired woman with a nasal piercing and a pair of Roman numerals tattooed under her blue eyes.

"Got you!" She shouted, and lifted him right into the air. Isaac struggled with everything he had, but he couldn't get out of her steel grip. _The hell is with these gauntlets?!_

"Get dunked!" Vi shouted as she brought him back down towards the earth, slamming Isaac into the ground with bone-crushing force.

Even through his advanced body armor, Isaac felt his entire body shake and groan in pain from the impact.

"It's Vi! Shit!" Vega shouted.

_Great..._

Isaac grunt in pain as he was released from the woman's grasp. He tried to roll away, but the pink haired woman grabbed him again.

"What? Still wanna fight?" She laughed, picking him up and slamming him back to the ground.

Isaac grunted louder in pain as his vision blurred from the blow.

_Not good! At this rate I'm going to be killed... AGAIN!_

Vi laughed again, slamming him into the ground a third time as she did. "Come on, resist arrest!" She shouted.

_Does this crazy bitch think she's a cop of some kind?!_ Isaac tried to wiggle his way out, but her over-sized gauntlets made it incredibly difficult.

"Hang on Archangel!" He heard Vega in his head. Suddenly, Isaac felt the woman's grip weaken. Seizing the chance, he pushed outwards will all his might, breaking free of his attackers grip, and rolled away to put some distance between them.

"Damn you! Exhausting me!" The woman cursed at him. Her movements looked very sluggish and slowed.

"Archangel! Run back to the turret! You're too injured to fight her right now!" Vega shouted, and Isaac felt him trying to influence him again.

This time, he didn't try to fight it. Isaac grunted as he tried to ignore the pain in his body, scrambling to his feet and running for the tower. He was still shaken up from Vi's attacks, he stumbled twice on the way. Isaac looked back over his shoulder as he ran, only to see that Vi had closed the gap quickly.

_How is that woman so fast?_

"Her gauntlets seem to allow her to push herself forwards, somehow." Mute answered his unsaid question.

"Why the hell don't I have something like that?!" Isaac half shouted and he raced back towards his turret.

"Keep running, we've got a surprise lined up for Vi!" Vega's voice sounded much more confident now.

_What do you mean?_ Isaac looked behind him again, only to see Vi closing the gap between them much faster now with her one hand out stretched.

"Got you!" She shouted.

"No, I've got YOU!" Isaac heard a strange, but familiar voice. He saw a flash of light to his side that faded as quickly as it appeared. In its place was Skarner.

The brackern's tail arched and a blue bolt of mana fired from its tip. The bolt hit the unsuspecting Vi, and her body suddenly became surrounded by crystal.

"Muahahahaha!" Skarner laughed like a man-man. He quickly backpedaled, his six legs causing him to pick up speed in a flash. He raced past Isaac, who had stopped moving.

_What is he doing?_ Isaac wondered, as Skarner pulled Vi past him towards the turret. He saw a faint line appear from the turret's crystal, linking it with the crystallized woman.

_Oh I see..._

"Clever..." Mute agreed with him.

A large blast of mana fired from the turret, and hit Vi. The champion exploded in a blue spectacle, pieces of her crystallized body flying everywhere. Isaac found the sight to be somewhat amusing, and couldn't stop himself from chuckling. He heard the mystery woman announce that another enemy had been slain.

Isaac walked up to the turret, and glanced at Skarner. He nodded at the strange creature to show his thanks. Skarner returned the gesture before storming off into the trees again.

"Recalling." Vega announced. "That was close."

"Yeah, it sure was..." Isaac agreed, feeling his body disassemble itself as he was sent back to the spawning point.

**The Sheriff of Piltover**

**Everdeen Mines, near Piltover**

Caitlyn watched the exchange go down through her sniper scope, from her hidden location inside one of Piltover's nearby mines. It seemed like an ordinary criminal exchange to her. One party, three figures wearing black coats, handed over a large bag to a group of five men dressed as typical criminals. The lead criminal, the group's boss as Caitlyn suspected, peered inside the bag, seemed satisfied with its contents, and then waved his own men on. Two of his goons grabbed a nearby crate and carried it over to the hooded figures, and opened it. This time, it was the hooded figures to peer inside, and they too nodded after a few seconds. And just like that, the exchange was over and the two groups went their separate ways.

And throughout the whole thing, Caitlyn took pictures with the camera given to her by Jayce.

_Perfect, that's all the evidence I'll need_. She thought. Now she just had to make the arrest. _I'll have to be careful, I'm alone this time. _She thought as she stealthily climbed down from her hiding spot. _Prefect time for Vi to have a League match..._ She frowned. Then again, if Vi was here, she wouldn't have likely had a chance to gather evidence of the exchange; Vi would've charged in and smashed all of the criminal's faces first.

Not that Vi's method didn't work from time to time, but for a delicate situation such as the one Caitlyn was trying to handle, it would've backfired. _What I need is a break in my case of the missing persons._ Caitlyn bit her lip as she thought about it. It was her job, her duty as the sheriff of Piltover to protect the people of her city, and those very same people she was sworn to protect had been vanishing under her very nose.

It had been upsetting her partner too. Vi had been increasingly violent as of late. _Maybe it's for the better that she's taking part in that match, she needs to let of some steam... without causing any incidents._

Caitlyn finished her climb, planting her feet firmly into the dirt of the mine. She moved in the dark, quickly and quietly to where the exchange had taken place. _They went left..._ She followed the group of five. The hooded figures were indeed much more curious, but she wanted to know what was in those crates the gang had brought them.

Watching where she stepped, she pursued the group through the mines. It didn't take long before she could see the light from the touches the group was carrying. _Too bad they don't have night vision goggles._ Caitlyn found herself grinning. When she had received information about strange activity in the mines from the owners (who initially thought it was ghosts haunting the mineshafts, of all things), Caitlyn had contacted the inventor, Jayce, about her planned trip.

_These gadgets make the job much easier... but take some of the fun out_. She thought, but her grin quickly faded. She had a bad feeling however, that she wasn`t the only stalker in the mines. However, She couldn`t put her finger on the cause. _Call it a defective's intuition I suppose._

She could hear the gangsters talking among themselves now...

"Did they give us the promised amount?"

"That and more. These strange fellas, they sure know how to do business!"

"And to think, all we had to do was steal a few crates of mana crystals. Hah!"

_Well, this solves that OTHER case..._ Caitlyn wasn't sure how she felt about that though. Sure the mana crystal thefts were of concern, as all crime was to her, but that also meant that she wasn't going to get anything on the missing people's case.

_Well, it matters not. A crime is still a crime, and these boys are about to taste a little Piltover justice._ But before she could act, she needed to know the location of their hideout. On a whim, she took a glance over her shoulder and spotted a man-shaped figure duck behind a wall.

_Darn, I'm being followed after all!_ Caitlyn bit her lower lip. What a fine predicament she had gotten herself into. _How could I be so careless?_ She had two options: either continue to follow her targets (and hope whoever was behind her didn't interfere), or face her own stalker and risk losing her intended targets.

Either choice had its issues though. If she followed the gang she ran the risk of being jumped by her own follower. But if she turned and faced her own pursuer, she might never get another chance at finding this group's hideout.

_Either way, I'm taking a huge risk. God, when did I become so careless? _Caitlyn frowned, and made her choice.

She continued to follow the gang, remaining cautious of the mysterious figure that followed her.

**Team Fight**

**Summoner's Rift**

Isaac lied and waited for the one known as Ashe to get closer. _These bushes do wonders..._ He grinned. Behind him, in the so called "middle lane" his teammates were squaring off against the remaining four enemies. Only Ashe was absent, and here she was running to meet her team.

_According to Mute, she already used that... hawkshot... whatever, thing, so there's no way she'll know I'm here._

And sure enough, Ashe walked right up to Isaac. TO her credit though, she seemed to be moving very carefully, scanning her surroundings as she made her was down the river.

But she didn't spot Isaac lying in the bushes. Sure Mute had assured him that he didn't need to lie down when in the apparently magical bushes, but he did anyways. _Its reflex... it has to be._

That didn't change anything though, and as soon as Ashe was close enough, Isaac jumped out at her, swords in hand. He activated his time-slow just as he moved, allowing him to set himself up perfectly.

The frost archer never stood a chance. With his time-slow active, Isaac preformed a reverse slash with both his swords right at her neck. Sure it was a simple move that he likely didn't NEED his timeslow for, but he damn well wanted to make sure he got her.

And got her he did. As soon as his time slow faded, his movements sped up, and he served the woman's head from the rest of her body.

Quick, painless, and clean. Well, sort of clean, blood still splashed everywhere, but it contained minimal gore.

Isaac didn't take a moment to savor his kill though, as soon as both Ashe's head and body slumped to the ground, he turned around and ran out of the bush, back into the middle lane where his teammates were locked in combat.

Jinx was backpedaling furiously, smiling and laughing away as she fired her minigun at a very frustrated Vi. Jinx however failed to see the spider queen leap onto her from behind, but in return, Elise didn't notice Blitzcrank's massive gold hand shoot out from his arm and close around her. Elise screamed, her tone giving off hints of both surprise and frustration at being yanked away from her prey.

On the far side of the lane, Ezreal and Skarner faced off against Syndra and Taric. Ezreal fired blasts of energy from his gauntlet at Taric, trying to keep the gem knight away from him. Taric however seemed unfazed, and charged at the explorer, only to be turned to crystal by Skarner and pulled away. Skarner on the other hand, enjoyed capturing Taric so much that he wasn't able to see (let alone dodge) a barrage of dark energy from Syndra.

"Who do we help first?" Mute asked. She seemed to be enjoying their time on the Fields of Justice.

_I won't admit it, but its nice letting loose without actually killing, or fear of losing a comrade._

Isaac grinned, sheathing his swords. "We help them all." He leapt at Vi, her being the closest, and closed his eyes for a moment.

_Unleash!_

Kasubel watched the events of the match unfold. Archangel leaped at Vi, and before he reached her, his body became surrounded in a purple shroud. Four large tendrils emerged from his back, each pulsing with dark energy. As he collided with the surprised Vi, Archangel tackled her to the ground. The four tendrils on his back tore into Vi, and she stopped squirming in under a second.

Archangel didn't waste a second, the two tendrils that were sticking out from his shoulder blades pulled out of Vi, and aimed at Elise. Kasubel saw a blast of dark purple energy fire out from the end of each tendril, both aimed right at the spider queen, who had moments before been slowed by a hit from Jinx's energy pistol. The bolts of dark energy, matter, or whatever Archangel referred to it as hit Elise in the side of her spider form, sending her right into the wall next to Blitzcrank. The steam golem smashed his fist into the injured queen, preventing her from getting up. Jinx followed up by firing a rocket at the spider, finishing her off.

_Not bad..._

On the other side however, Syndra had finished off Skarner, and she and Taric turned on a retreating Ezreal. Taric turned to the side to look at where his allies had fallen, and a Kasubel noticed a look of surprise on the gem knight's face. He jumped in between Syndra and Archangel's clear line of fire at her, and took the next hit from the waves of darkness shot from new champion. While he was recovering from the blow, Jinx followed up with another rocket, a much larger one, and blew the knight to pieces.

Kasubel chuckled at the sight of that, though he wasn't sure why. Maybe he was laughing less at the fight itself, and more so at the look of surprise on Syndra's face. The dark mage leapt backwards, trying to escape from the lost fight. Ezreal and a very excited Jinx took chase.

Jinx unleashed her minigun on the dark sovereign. Before the bullets could reach the dark champion, a barrier of mana materialized around her, blocking each bullet before they could strike her body.

_A barrier... good timing._

As she retreated, Syndra summoned up a sphere of dark energy and launched it at the prodigal explorer. Ezreal activated his shift at the last possible second, avoiding the attack, and appearing behind the mage. With a shout, he fired his Trueshot Barrage at Syndra's back. The magical energy slammed into the dark mage's back, and she shrieked in response. Before she could move, she took another hit from Ezreal from behind, and was gunned down from Jinx.

"ACE!" The announcer announced.

Kasubel nodded in response before returning to his work. _That match is over..._

Isaac grunted as he felt the backlash from using his "ultimate". He couldn't move without groaning in pain as his whole body tensed up from using so much dark matter at once. Had no choice but to take it slow.

_That's the trade off for that ability. If I'm not careful, that could land me in a nasty situation if I don't finish everyone off before it ends._

Jinx on the other hand, didn't. From all the way in the back where he was, he could hear the lunatic howling in laughter as she charged up the lane, destroying another turret.

"Hey, looks like that chick is going to take all the glory." Mute grinned.

Isaac exhaled, trying to block out the pain. It was subsiding, slowly, but it still hurt to move. "Let her then. I was never one for the glory anyways."

"Yeah, yeah, you've always been that way."

"That was amazing!" Vega praised Isaac. Whatever tension had been in the atmosphere between him and the summoner at the start was gone now. "Take it easy, Jinx is already inside their base."

"Wow, she works fast."

"Yeah... hard to keep track of, that one."

Isaac nodded in response. "So... now what? Its over?"

"It'll be over... about... now!"

As Vega spoke that last word, Isaac saw the enemy nexus explode in the distance. Up ahead, he saw Ezreal cheer and Blitzcrank hold his "belly" and laugh. He then heard the female voice announce their team's victory

To Isaac on the other hand, it didn't feel like much of a victory to him.

_Have we really gotten anywhere? Have we even made it a step farther in finding a way home? To finding my REAL team? No... no this meant nothing._

Mute's avatar appeared before him, with a look of concern on her face. "What's up?"

Isaac shook his head. "Nothing... just, thinking."

Mute remained quiet, something she rarely did, before nodding and her avatar disappeared.

"Don't worry, we'll find a way home. I know it!" He heard her reassure him.

_I'm not sure Mute..._ Isaac closed his eyes as he felt himself being sent back to the Institute. _I've got a bad feeling we're going to be here until the end of our days... whenever the end is._


	6. Chapter 5 - Mission

**Practice**

**The Institute of War**

"YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!"

Isaac's eyes shot open, scanning around for a weapon. Any weapon. Just some THING to defend himself with against the source of the ear shattering voice. He reached under his pillow and brandished a dagger, frantically looking all around the room for his enemy.

_Wait..._ Isaac collected himself, _Right... just another nightmare_... he let out a long drawn out sigh, and fell back onto the mattress. _Just... just another nightmare, that's all_. He rubbed his eyes, cursing his dreams.

Thanks to that nightmare though, he was wide awake, which meant it was no issue getting to the shower.

_You'd think I'd be able to move on now..._ Isaac thought, shaking downcast head as the warm water soaked his skin. How many years had it been since her death? Too many, yet apparently not enough as the nightmares never stopped.

Even as he suited up, the memories stuck with him.

"Another nightmare?" Mute asked him as he grabbed his helmet from the stand. He left his armor lying around in the open more. Although he still didn't fully trust the League, it had been nearly a week since he had arrived in Valoran. And seeing how nobody had stolen any more of his things aside from what was "confiscated" at day one, Isaac didn't feel the need to hide everything as strongly now.

Isaac maintained a neutral expression as he looked at his reflection in his helmet's jet black visor. How much longer did he have to suffer from these nightmares?

_Until you can come to terms with what you've done._

"Isaac?" Isaac could see Mute's avatar appear behind him in the reflection. She had a look of concern on both her face and in her posture. "You... ok?"

Isaac placed his helmet over his head and sealed it before saying a word. "Yeah... just... just a bad dream."

"Sounds like it was worse than just a bad dream."

"Leave it be Mute."

Mute rolled her eyes. "If you insist..."

Isaac ensured the door to his room was locked before he left for the sparring room. It had been three days since his League match, and he was STILL restricted to the confides of the Institute of War. On the positive side, they were now allowing him to wander the halls as he pleased, granted he stayed out of the restricted areas.

During his initial tour of the Institute, Isaac had either seen or encountered the other champions residing inside the building. Some he had already seen before, such as Kayle and Malphite, but the others he ran into he found to be a little... off.

The first one he noticed was Brand, who was apparently some kind of... "fire spirit" that was bound inside a deceased human body. He was also being held inside some sort of magic prison similar to the one Isaac had been held inside. When Isaac tried to get close to him, the creature tried to burn him with magic, but whatever prison he was being held in prevented it from hitting him. Isaac left him alone after that.

He quickly found out that Brand wasn't the only "champion" that was being confided in a cell of sorts. And Isaac's attempts to converse or get close to resulted in the same situation as Brand had. He was able to get Mute to scan each one however, which was a satisfying result in its own. But Isaac couldn't help but to feel a little unnerved at the sight of these creatures. Especially one called Nocturne; Isaac didn't even attempt to get close to that one. He just had Mute scan it from a distance and left it be.

_Something that controls nightmares... that is the LAST thing I want to get close to, let alone talk to._ Just looking at the shadowy aberration had Isaac on edge, and he was never afraid of anything. _Anything but my dreams_.

_Nocturne, Brand, Renekton, Kog'maw, Cho'Gath, Fiddlesticks... like me none of them seem to be here of their own free will. Only difference is that they won't even make a compromise, they're just hostile to everyone and everything around them._

But the Institute seemed to house more than just imprisoned champions, Kayle and Malphite were two of such. Isaac attempted to converse with them to try and figure out more about Valoran, but his results varied. Malphite seemed incredibly wise, but the way he spoke made Isaac feel like he had to decode everything afterwards. Nasus wasn't much better, and since he too was from another world, Isaac didn't feel the need to learn about that one too. Although, learning that Valoran and Earth weren't the only two worlds around was rather interesting to know, but didn't help his current situation at all.7

Isaac tried to talk with Vayne as well, but before he could even get a word in she started to interrogate him. _Are your powers black magic? Are there black magic users in your world? The questions... they didn't stop. _Isaac shook his head thinking back on it, but then again, he was also going to question her... just in a more polite fashion. After he had answered her questions, mainly with a bunch of NOs, she seemed satisfied and walked off. The only words Isaac got out of his mouth were an apology for attacking her earlier. _Best to butter that up a bit, since I'm sharing a roof with someone who I tried to kill... then again, she never once mouthed something that passed off as an apology for trying to kill me..._

Others we're similar, asking Isaac all sorts of questions about his own world, and each time Isaac gave bare minimal answers. _I don't know if I can trust much about my home to these people yet... maybe people outside this Institute yes, but these so called summoners still make me a little uneasy. _Vega seemed trustworthy enough, from what Isaac could tell, but still Vega had a boss, and that boss had a boss, and SOMEONE up that line wanted to know certain things about Isaac's world. Of that, Isaac was certain.

_OR maybe I'm just paranoid about all this_... Isaac let out a sigh. After his day of touring he found himself spending his time in the Institute's library reading books on the world, or inside one of the many training rooms to work on his skills. This morning, Isaac felt the need to move around after that dream.

_Maybe if I vent on those training minions they got here, I'll feel a little better._ Isaac thought has he hit the switch in the training room, which caused a wave of magic to be released into the circular room lined with pillars. Several human sized minions appeared, each with a variety of weapons from swords, to spears, to axes.

Isaac rolled his neck around and drew two of his own swords.

"Seven on one?" Mute asked him, "Feeling a bit under the weather today?"

"Shut it and just monitor me..." Isaac mumbled and charged, semi-aware that he wasn't the only one in the room.

**House Du Couteau**

**Noxus**

"Well?" Was the first question that Katarina was asked when she entered her older sister's office.

"It's not Demacia." She replied, walking up to her sister's desk, shaking her head. "They've got the same problem."

"Hah! And you believe them?"

"Only because every other nation in Valoran is suffering from the same problem." Katarina replied, gazing away from where her sister sat and up to the picture of her father that hung high on the wall. _Father... where did you go? _She thought sadly, making sure that her sadness towards her missing father didn't show on her face. Not that it really mattered in this room, her father's former office now her eldest sisters'.

"I guess I lost a bet then..." She heard her sister mumble. Katarina looked away from her father's picture and back down to her sister Marina. She was Katarina's senior by two years, and the heiress to house Du Couteau. She scratched her head, her shoulder length light red hair waving around as she did. "So who does the league suspect?"

Katarina crossed her arms. "They don't know. In fact, the only thing the Minister of Security knows is that every nation has filed a report on missing people. Other then that, they know nothing."

"Or there just not willing to share anything." Marina looked back down at the papers she had been examining before Katarina had entered. "For all we know they could be suspecting Noxus. Again."

"I doubt that," Katarina shook her head. "The Minister seems to suspect that new champion instead."

"Ah... yes... I had entirely forgotten about him. What was his name again?"

"Archangel."

"Right. He is of no concern." Marina shook her head. "What IS of concern is the numbers of missing people, and that is only because they seem to be taken at random." She passed one of the papers she was holding to Katarina.

Katarina looked it over quickly. _A list of names... and who they work for._ Katarina didn't really care as long as she didn't recognize any of them. However, she did notice what her sister meant. _Some are taken from house Darkwill, others from house Killion, others from..._

Katarina snarled. Some of the kidnapped had been soldiers of her own house. Sure they were just grunts, but that didn't change the fact that whoever was swiping people of the streets was willing to make enemies of the Du Couteau's. _And enemies of the Darkwills and Killions..._

"Whoever these people are, if there even people at all, they're willing to piss off every military family in Noxus... and the rest of the world too from what you're telling me." Marina shook her head. "And the League is grasping at straws to find someone to pin the blame on." She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temple.

_So we have nothing..._ Katarina dropped the paper back onto the desk. "Did you find anything?" She asked, turning her head to the concealed person in the room. A hooded figure stood in the shadows, emerging slowly. _Talon_.

"Nothing." He said, walking up to stand next to Katarina. "All the other families seem to be in the same situation. Even the Grand General himself has no suspects."

_So the reports he gave me we're true in that part_. Katarina thought. She believed the reports were actuate, Noxian intelligence always was. What she didn't know for certain, was that Swain had no suspects. _That man can't be trusted, not now, not ever. _Those had been her father's words. But now her father was gone, vanished without a trace. She knew that her father's disappearance had come as a shock to many in their family, herself included. Her youngest sister, Cassiopeia, had been hurt the most by it.

_She also opposed Marina taking control of matters the most as well... _Katarina remembered. Marina had only been the de facto head of house Du Couteau for three months. Originally they had clung to the hope that the investigation into their father's disappearance would've come up with SOMETHING, but after a year without any results, someone had to fill in the void left by his departure.

_She just didn't want to face the truth; the truth that father might be dead. _She thought, looking up at his picture again. _I don't want to face it either, but we all have to... he may be long dead. _

"The Grand General finds no suspects, because it appears he isn't even looking for any." Marina said, her face clouded. "The only reports I've received from him are recruitment orders and the like."

_Recruitment?_ "So? Noxus always needs more soldiers." Katarina stated the obvious.

"Not these numbers... it's almost as if we're gearing up for something big..." Marina looked back down at the reports on her desk. _Father's former desk_.

"It's not just us," Talon spoke, "It's all the houses, everyone has received similar orders to build up forces."

"Maybe it's to rebuild our army, we took a great deal of foolish loses during the transition of power from Darkwill to Swain."

"If, that could even be called a transition and more so a borderline civil war." Marina snorted. House Du Couteau had taken no part in that, Noxians fighting Noxians was a foolish thing after all when they were surrounded by enemies.

"Added up, these numbers would put Noxus's total military strength at par with what it was prior to the invasion of Ionia." Talon stated. "And seeing how there seems to no signs of these recruitment orders stopping, we'll soon pass that point."

Katarina frowned. _Why? What could Swain be up too?_ "So what do we do?"

"There should be no question about that." Marina replied. "We do as the Grand General says."

_And then what?_ Katarina folded her arms out in front of her again. "What do we do about the missing people?"

Her sister cocked her head to the side. "Why, Kat, it's simple. We do nothing unless it truly affects our own house. A few missing guardsmen from our ranks isn't all that serious if we're just going to recruit massive amounts of new ones. This is Noxus! The strong survive, while the weak perish."

_She's just dodging the responsibility... _Katarina glanced at the picture of her father one last time. _What would you've done father...? _She asked inside, fully knowing she wouldn't get an answer.

_I guess I'll have to figure this one out myself._

**The Wings of Demacia**

**Southern Demacian Region**

The farmstead was deserted. Not a soul in sight. No signs of struggle, no signs of a break in, no nothing. It was as if the entire family had been turned into ghosts over night.

_It's the same as the last two... _Quinn chewed on her lower lip as she scanned the master bedroom. The bed was still made, undisturbed. Did the mother and father even go to bed? Did the children? There was no evidence, no nothing. Just an empty house and a bunch of hungry farm animals.

_This is troubling... _She pulled out her notebook and jotted down her findings... or lack thereof. _Another abandoned shack..._ She left the empty household that had once been home to a family of seven. She brought her fingers to her mouth and gave a whistle. "Val!" She called out to her companion. Two seconds later, she heard her partner screech, and she looked up at the bright sky.

_Valor..._ Quinn felt a smile grow across her face as she sighted her closest friend. The blue Demacian eagle swooped down and perched himself on her arm, looking her in the eyes.

"Squawk!" Valor said to her. _Did you find anything?_

Quinn shook her head. "Nothing Val, just like all the others. Deserted."

"Squawk." Valor shook his head. _Great, empty handed again._

"Don't worry, we'll find what's behind all this. I'm sure of it!" Quinn reassured her friend.

"Squawk!" Valor replied. _I know, I know. I just hope we're not too late. _"Squawk!" _Hey, want to hear a joke? Knock, knock?_

Quinn rolled her eyes. Here we go again! "Who's there?"

"Squawk." _Cat._

"Cat who?"

"Squawk!" _Cat find anyone either!_

Quinn gave Valor a humorless look. "Really?"

"Squawk!" _Sorry, hard to find humor in this situation._

"Oh brother..." Quinn sighed.

She mounted her horse again and they set off for the next farmstead. As Valor patrolled the skies, Quinn opened up her map, checking it over. _Nothing... every farm and community in this region either had no idea about missing people or is a ghost town. _

Quinn chewed on her lower lip again. She wasn't happy about the idea of returning home empty handed again. She knew her superiors didn't want to hear her reports on missing people as much as they wanted answers. _Maybe Garen got some while he visited the Institute of War... maybe..._

That did little to help her out in the field though. _I can't return empty handed... I won't disappoint my commanders, and I won't disappoint Jarvan!_

Quinn folded her map up and placed it back in her pouch, her resolve hardened. _I will find the bastards responsible, and bring them before my prince!_

"Squawk!" She heard Valor call out to her.

_What? You see something washed up on shore...? _Quinn frowned. _I better check it out_. She rode over to the location Valor had pointed out to her. It was a small beach that should've been deserted. But something caught Quinn's eye. He narrowed her eyes, using her hand to block out the sunlight as she looked the beach up and down.

_It's a person!_ Her eyes went wide open and she ushered her horse onward. _Oh, please be alive!_

She raced up to the person lying in the sand. Dismounting, she sprinted over to the individual and flipped him over.

_Oh god..._ Quinn covered her face. The body stank, and there were holes all over the torso. _Looks like he's been shot... rapidly... _Trying to avoid smelling the body, she scanned the remains, trying to identify who it was. Her eyes quickly fell on the Demacian crest on the man's shoulder and tugged on it to get a better look.

_Captain Jack Reynolds...? But..._ Quinn realized what she discovered. _The captain of The Winds of Honor! But that ship went missing three days ago!_ She looked the body over again. _Who... killed him? He's been shot multiple times..._

"Squawk!" Valor called out to her. _Over here, take a look at this._

She gazed over at Valor. The eagle was standing on top of a large plank of wood that had washed up on shore along with Reynolds. Wandering over to it, Quinn looked it over. It was unremarkable, all things considered. But what Valor had noticed wasn't the plank itself, but the writing on the side of it. _Winds of Honor_... Quinn read. _This giant piece of wood is from the ship itself... that means._

"Uh oh..." Quinn muttered. This was going to be an interesting addition to her report. She could see it now. _Sorry my prince, I didn't find any clues regarding our missing people, but I found out what happened to our missing ship..._

"So..." Quinn asked out loud to no one in particular. "Who destroyed the ship?"

Isaac finished off another wave of minions. He parried the blow from one, ducked as another took a stab at him with spear, and rolled to the side as a third tried to crack his head open with a war hammer. Isaac quickly leapt back to his feet and took up a fighting stance as all three minions charged at him again.

_Got them..._ Isaac parried the blow from the swordsman first, striking out with his second sword. The blade cleaved through the minion's chest, and it vanished in a white flash. _One down._ He threw one of his blades from his right hand, catching the minion with the war hammer in the neck. Like the previous minions it too vanished, and his sword fell to the floor with a clang. _Two down._ The final minion, armed with a spear, charged at him, thrusting its weapon out. Isaac side stepped the attack and grabbed the spear with his free hand, yanking on it as hard as he could. The minion stumbled forward from the force of Isaac pulling on its weapon, and he finished it off with a slash across the neck.

_Too easy..._ Isaac casually walked over to where his sword had fallen and picked it up. _Now... for whoever has been watching me..._

"How long are you going to stalk me?" He asked loudly as he sheathed his swords.

"So you did notice me." A hardened female voice responded, and out from behind one of the pillars came an angel clad in gold armor with a large golden blade in hand.

_Kayle..._ Isaac turned to face the angel. "So, did you need something?"

"Your fighting style is curious. Who taught you?"

Isaac flexed the fingers on his right hand. _Should I bother?_ "An... old friend." He answered. _More like someone who gave me a chance... or did she just take pity on me? _"What of it?"

"Nothing really..." Kayle took a few steps to the left until she was in the center of the room, meters away from Isaac. "I suppose idle curiosity."

Isaac eyed the so called angel carefully. He didn't believe that was the only reason she was here.

"I don't think it's just idle curiosity..." Mute muttered.

Isaac turned to face the angel. "Well? Was there something else you wanted? If not I'll be going."

"Yes there was something else." She replied, and pointed her sword at Isaac. "I want to test those skills of yours."

"Knew it." Mute grinned.

"You want to fight me?" Isaac asked, unsurprised by her challenge.

"A duel, yes." Kayle confirmed. "No magic, just swords. Do you accept?"

"Careful Isaac..." Mute cautioned him. "I think that was more of a demand then question here."

_Great..._ Isaac let out a sigh. _I guess this is karma for never going to church._ He reached to the X shaped sheaths on his back and drew out two swords. "Fine. Let's do this." He replied.

Kayle nodded, and gripped her sword with both hands. "Then, let us begin!" She shouted and leaped into the air.

_Oh great._

Kayle dove right at him, using her wings to get a quick and amazing burst of speed.

_Oh shit..._ Isaac cursed and jumped back, raising both his swords to catch Kayle's downward swing. Their weapons crashed into each other with deafening clang. Isaac pushed her sword away and tried to slash at his new opponent. Kayle quickly flew away from him and hovered in the air for a moment before readying herself again, sword over her head.

"Have at you!" She cried out and dove at him again. Isaac readied himself to block this one two, expecting her to fly right at him again. However the angel twisted her body and brought her sword down at his side.

_Shit!_ Isaac rolled out of the way, "feeling" her blade knick his armor as he barely got out of the way in time. He rolled back onto his feet and searched for his target. It wasn't hard to spot her; she was keeping herself a few feet off the ground.

And she was charging again.

Isaac parried her strike with one sword and countered with the other. Kayle flew around to the side of him just as fast though, causing him to hit nothing but air. She swung down at him again, and Isaac quickly found himself on the defensive without any way of countering. She danced around him in the air, driving at him time and time again with her large blade. And the only thing Isaac could do was parry each blow, trying to find an opening.

_She's got some intense speed there..._ The size of her sword made it difficult to block with one sword, but he needed to counter somehow. _I just need to think... wait... _

Kayle swung down at him again, and Isaac raised one sword to deflect the blow. But rather then counter with his free sword, he dropped it. As their blades bashed against one another, Isaac leapt at Kayle, grabbing her foot with his free left hand. _Got her._ Isaac twisted his body and flung Kayle towards the ground with all his might, and the angel came crashing down to the earth.

Kayle let out a grunt as her body hit the floor with a loud bang. It must've taken her by surprise because she made no attempt to soften her landing. As she tried to scramble to her feet quickly, Isaac tackled her back to the ground. The two rolled for a second, and Isaac pinned the angel to the ground with himself on top of her. He grabbed her sword arm by the wrist with his free hand and brought his own blade to her neck.

"Yield!" He shouted.

Kayle didn't move, but after a second she nodded.

_Whew..._ Isaac relaxed and dismounted his defeated foe. He sheathed his sword and gave the angel a hand in getting up.

"Well done." Kayle nodded to him again. "I can't say I was expecting you to grab my foot like that."

"Well, you didn't leave me with many options with that constant barrage from the air." Isaac chuckled as he picked up the sword he had dropped.

"This has been an enjoyable experience Archangel. I hope to duel you again in the future." Kayle said and then bowed. "Until next time." And with that she left the room.

"She doesn't seem so bad." Mute chimed in. "I mean, if she wanted to kill us she had her chance today."

Isaac rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe... but then again I don't think that angel is one of the people we should be cautious of."

"And just who should we be cautious of Isaac?"

"When I figure that out, I'll get back to you."

**Mission**

**The Institute of War**

Kasubel let out another sigh. _It's no use... there's nothing in these reports that give me any new leads_. He tossed papers that the League had submitted to him into a random desk drawer. It had been nearly a week since it became "official" that every nation in Valerian was suffering from the missing people crisis, and Kasubel had made no progress whatsoever. _No, the only mystery semi-solved was that of Archangel..._

Kasubel stood up from his chair and looked outside. He was straight out of options; he would have to ask Archangel if he knew anything. And if Kasubel wasn't satisfied with the champions answer, he would have to interrogate him. _I'm that desperate it seems..._

There was a knock at his door. "Enter." Kasubel called out, and a young summoner entered his office.

"Excuse me Minister, but there is a letter for you." The young summoner meekly said.

Kasubel didn't turn away from the window. "Put it on my desk."

"Of course Minister... good day." And with that Kasubel was alone again.

_I'm letting this case get to my head..._ Kasubel took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. _Maybe I need to take a walk, or a break..._ He slowly walked back to his desk and took a seat, eying the letter that had been dropped off.

He picked it up and scanned the name of the sender. _Sheriff of Piltover?_ _Caitlyn?_ Kasubel frowned and opened the letter. _I hope it's not just more numbers of missing people. Those numbers aren't helping me solve anything, there just making me stress over the importance of this matter more._

Kasubel pulled out a bundle of papers from the envelope. The introduction letter was clearly written by Caitlyn herself; professional, straight to the point, with just enough detail.

_A gang of mana crystal thieves caught... trading with hooded figures of unknown origin... pictures included. _Kasubel folded the letter up and dropped it on his desk, flipping through the pictures Caitlyn had sent him. Most of them were of an exchange between a gang and three hooded figures; others included mug shots of the gang and pictures of their confiscated mana crystals. _Wow... they stole a lot... _ Kasubel raised an eye brow at the photo that had been taken of several crates, all filled to the top with blue crystals.

_But how does this help me?_ Stealing mana crystals had little to do with the missing people. Sure the hooded figures were interesting. For some reason they really wanted those crystals and in large supply, but did that really link to the missing people. _No link I see..._ Kasubel sighed again and flipped to the last photo.

_My god..._

He dropped all the other photos, eyes wide open looking the last one over and over again. _That's... impossible! He was here this whole time! We've made sure of it!_ Kasubel scanned the photo over and over again. _Wait, there's a difference, the helmet isn't the same. That armor seems more damaged as well. _Was there more than one of them? That was entirely possible. But what was this figure doing in Piltover?

Kasubel quickly placed the photo in his desk and bolted from his chair. _I need to see him... NOW!_

_Well this is a surprise... I guess..._ Isaac frowned as he raised his hand to knock on the Minister of Security's door. "What do you think he wants?" He asked Mute.

"Don't know, but from what I know about this guy, it could be anything." She replied.

_One way to find out_. Isaac knocked. "Enter." Was the response.

Isaac cautiously opened the door and stepped into the minister's office, finding Kasubel sitting at his desk with his hands together. He closed the door behind him, but didn't take another step inside. "You asked to see me?" Isaac asked.

"Yes, please take a seat." Kasubel said, waving his hand towards a chair opposite of him.

"I'd rather stand." Isaac replied, walking up to the minister's desk. "I'm going to assume this isn't about letting me out of the Institute is this?"

Kasubel nodded. "No, but perhaps it could lead to that." He leaned back in his chair. "I want to ask you something."

_Big surprise there._ "Shoot."

"Did you come to this world alone?"

Isaac paused. _Should I be honest and tell him that the rest of my team may be here? Then again, it's not like any of us came here by choice..._

Isaac decided to go with that. "It's not like I came here by choice you know, you're summoners pulled me out here."

"Yes, but you we're already crossing the void when they did so. And that doesn't answer my question." Kasubel leaned forward, elbows resting on his desk. "Did you come here alone?"

Before Isaac could say anything else, he heard Mute's ahem. "Isaac, maybe they can help us locate our squad. Just tell him."

Isaac sighed. _Fine._ "There... might have been two, maybe five others that came across the... void aside from myself."

"You don't know for certain?"

"No," Isaac shook his head. "Like I said before, we didn't come here by choice. Some sort of, rift, sucked us in. I was the third one it pulled in."

"So you know for sure that there are at least two others like yourself that came to Valoran?" Kasubel's expression seemed natural. "Why didn't you tell us?"

_Better play it safe. _"You never asked." He shrugged.

He heard Mute laugh inside his helmet.

Isaac crossed his arms, ignoring his AI partner's laughing. "So, why did you want to know suddenly?" HE asked the minister.

Kasubel pushed three small pieces of paper towards Isaac. "I want you to have a look at these." He pointed to the papers.

Isaac picked them up carefully and turned them over. _Photos?_ Sure enough, they were photographs. Black and white photos, but still very good quality pictures. He looked at the first one. In it there were two groups of people, one group looked like a couple of goons, and the other wore strange looking robes. They appeared to be in the middle of some exchange.

"What am I looking at?" Isaac asked, puzzled by the pictures. _I see two groups of people I've never seen before..._

Kasubel stood up and slowly wandered over to a window, looking outside. "The group on the left are a bunch of mana crystal thieves, all arrested shortly after those pictures were taken. The group on the left wearing the hoods, I'm afraid we have no idea who they are."

"So why are you showing me these?"

"Look at the next picture."

Isaac complied and flipped to the next photo. This one had nothing in it aside from a ton of crates, which appeared to be full of blue crystals. _What are those?_

"Those crates you see are full of mana crystals, which contain small amounts of mana. Those hooded men in the first picture were paying the thieves a very large sum for those crystals, and I haven't an idea why." Kasubel said before turning his head to look at Isaac with his questioning eyes. "You wouldn't by chance know anyone or anything that would have such a need for mana crystals would you."

Isaac remained silent. _No, I don't know anything that would since I just got to your bloody world. But... if Mute's theory about the Ascension stockpiling mana is correct... then maybe. But from these pictures I can't tell for sure._

So, Isaac lied. "No, I've been restricted to your damn institute this whole time so I wouldn't know any such people." _Well, it's not really a lie as more so really twisting my words._

Mute must have read his mind. "That's still lying..."

Kasubel's expression didn't change. "Very well, now, the last photo."

Isaac flipped to the last picture, and his eyes shot wide open. _That's!_ The picture had been taken at an angle in the dark, with the only source of light being at the feet of the single individual in the photo. The subject of the picture was a man in a suit of armor similar to Isaac's, expect it looked like there was a pair of goggles strapped over top.

_Firewall?!_

"Where was this taken?" Isaac asked.

"In the Everdeen Mines, near Piltover. That individual had been following the sheriff of Piltover as she took those pictures. The one in that picture managed to escape the scene before he could be apprehended, but then again according to the report he did nothing but watch the entire scene." Kasubel paused before adding. "So, who is it?"

Isaac bit his lower lip. He couldn't lie his way out of this one since he had already displayed an interest in the picture. _But that doesn't mean I have to be a hundred percent truthful_. "He... if the one in that armor is who it should be, he's one of the ones who involuntary came to this world with me." Isaac slowly placed the photo down on the desk. "Involuntary. Don't forget that, none of us came here willingly."

Kasubel nodded, and sat back down at his desk. "I understand that. But, as loathe as I am to admit it, I need your help."

Isaac thought carefully. _I have no need to help these people. But... if helping them sets me on the right track towards the Ascension, and to a way off this world then I better do it. And if helping this League doesn't get me anywhere I'll be outside this Institute anyways, so I'll be able to bolt if I have to._

He nodded. "What would you have me do?"

"Across all of Valoran people are going missing, and I'm not talking about small cases of random disappearances, I'm talking about masses of people vanishing from their homes and streets at overnight. And these disappearances aren't restricted to a single location, there happening all over the continent." Kasubel leaned forward. "Now, if I suspected that someone, or something on your side of the void may have a hand in all this, would you consider me insane?"

"Maybe..." Isaac muttered, "but maybe not..." _I can't see what use the Ascension would have for such mass abductions. Small cases of kidnapping people, yes I can see that, but why would they need so many people?_

"But you do have an idea who it might be, yes?"

"I might, but I can't see them having a need for the numbers you're talking about here." Isaac replied. "What do you think Mute?"

Mute's avatar appeared next to Isaac. One of her hands was gripping her chin and the other across her body as she appeared deep in thought. Kasubel eyed Mute carefully; he clearly wasn't used to seeing her. _How could he? They all think Mute is some sort of ghost spirit, not an artificial intelligence._

"The possibility of it being the Ascension behind your kidnappings isn't zero, after all we have reason to believe that the Ascension have been carrying out operations in your world. However, like Archangel, I can't find a good enough reason to label the Ascension as your mystery abductors." Mute paused, and faced Kasubel before continuing. "But, I can't see any solid evidence to eliminate them from the list of suspects, so you might, just might, be sane."

The minister nodded, seemingly satisfied with Mute's explanation. "Then this is what I would like you... both, to do. Go to Piltover, see if you can find anything about the missing people and this organization you call the Ascension. And while you're there..." Kasubel picked the photo of Firewall up, "see if you can find any traces of this man. After all, if he's with you, that should be all the more reason to do so, yes?"

Isaac paused for a second before answering. _Seems like I'm following orders again. But this concedes with my own goals, so I'll play the soldier. _"Very well. When do I leave?"

"Tomorrow, I need to prepare an escort for you to Piltover, since you have yet to even set foot outside the Institute. Be ready to leave by six AM." Kasubel stood back up from his desk and wandered back over to his seemingly favorite window. "Honestly, I hope that these abductors are not this... Ascension. I don't deal well with... aliens. No offence."

Isaac shrugged. "I've been called worse. Alien is nothing."

Kasubel remained silent for a few moments. "I see. You are dismissed then, just be ready to leave tomorrow."

Isaac nodded, and showed himself out. _Well, this is an interesting turn of events._ He thought as he walked through the halls. "Mute, what do you think about all this?"

Her face appeared in the usual spot in his HUD. "Well, it's good that we can finally leave. And on top of that we basically got sanctioned to do some investigating. So this is all in our favor."

"What do you think about the abductions?"

"That's..." Mute furrowed her brow as she thought about it for a second. "It COULD be the Ascension, but as I said I can't see them needing SO many people. Why? Why would they kidnap so many seemingly pointless individuals? It doesn't add up." She paused and closed her eyes. "But, they are here in this world, I'm sure of it. After all, there stockpiling mana. And, those guys in that first picture we're dealing for those mana crystals so there is a possibility that they are either Ascension, or working with the Ascension."

Isaac shook his head. "That's too many possibilities and not enough concrete evidence Mute."

"I know... but we've got nothing here." She sighed. "Well, at least Firewall seems to be alive..."

Isaac nodded at that. "Yeah... but he's out there alone and likely without as much knowledge as us at the moment. So we better get there quick." _It's going to be a long wait until tomorrow._

**Email**

**Unknown Location**

To: General Edward Alcatraz

From: CONTROL

Subject: Shadow Team/Solomon Island Explosion

The investigation of the mysterious explosion on Guadalcanal has been completed. Results as follow.

SHADOW TEAM

Captain Vasilisa Nikolaidis "ORACLE" - MIA

UNIT AIXB45995123 "PEGASUS" – MIA

Lieutenant Luka Schulz "BLITZKRIEG" – MIA

UNIT AIXB45994190 "GOTH" – MIA

Sergeant Jessica Smith "RAPTOR" – KIA

UNIT AIXB45993102 "BOTSON" – DESTORYED (records RECOVERED)

Sergeant Isaac Miller "ARCHANGEL" – MIA

UNIT AIXB45990011 "MUTE" – MIA

Sergeant Raymond Grayson "JACKHAMMER" – MIA

UNIT AIXB45991239 "STARK" – MIA

Corporal Adam Chase "FIREWALL" – MIA

UNIT AIXB45998724 "CEO" – MIA

Corporal Sarah Youngson "ATHENA" – MIA

UNIT AIXB45997466 "ARES" – MIA

Mission was a success: Ascension base destroyed.

As you know, there was a massive explosion as the site of the former Ascension base. This explosion devastated the surrounding area killing an unknown number of the local population. The explosion has left behind fallout containing unknown readings. Local cleanup efforts (supported by Australian and Japanese military) are at a total standstill. All personal refuse to approach site due to unknown dangerous matter in explosion area. Further investigation into unknown fallout matter required.

Records recovered from destroyed AIX unit "BOSTON" revealed some very interesting facts, as well as what happened to SHADOW. According to the data, 5/6 members of the squad were struck by an unknown entity and vanished. Initially the squad members seemed to be outright incinerated, but additional analysis proves that they may have instead been "sucked in" by the entity, and transported to parts unknown.

(See Professor Jans Oslen's notes on multidimensional travel)

Recommendation: Further investigation into the missing members and the "entity" that was encountered inside the Ascension base is needed. Additionally, investigation into the fallout caused by the explosion is required.

-CONTROL, Commander of Meta-Human Warfare and TRANS-Ops


	7. Chapter 6 - The City of Progress

**Onset**

**The Institute of War**

"How was your rest?" Vega asked Isaac as the two of them made their way to the entrance of the Institute.

_The same as usual, nightmares. _But Isaac responded with a shrug. "Was rest."

"Well, I hope it was GOOD rest since we've got an entire day worth of riding ahead of ourselves." Vega laughed. He stretched his arms up to the ceiling. "Man I can't wait to get outside! This is your first time leaving the Institute right?"

Isaac nodded.

"Well, I'm sure you'll enjoy the fresh air." Vega clapped him on the back as the two of them reached a massive set of doors. "And here we go!" Vega proclaimed and pushed the doors open.

Isaac brought a hand up to his visor to block the sudden flash of light from the sun. _Damn that's bright... I guess it has been that long since I was last outside._ Isaac waited until his eyes adjusted before he took a look around. The doors they had exited out of took them into a narrow grassy valley with high walls. _This would be a major defensive position, only a narrow valley to enter from. _But then again that was likely the reason for the location.

"Ahhh fresh air! If I had lungs I'd be enjoying this." Mute said with a grin.

Isaac followed Vega down several sets of stairs. He threw a glance over his shoulder back up at the Institute of War. _It looks more like a massive fortified temple instead of the United-Nations rip-off it's supposed to be._

As they reached the bottom, Isaac noticed that a blonde man dressed in rugged clothing appeared to be waiting for him. Behind the man, were three glowing horses.

"Mute, why are those horses glowing?" Isaac quietly asked his artificial companion.

"Scanning... huh..." Mute tilted her head to the side. "It seems that those horses aren't real, there giving off energy readings similar to those minions in Summoner's Rift. There made of... magic I guess."

"Magic... right..." Isaac sighed. _I still can't believe that magic like this actually exists._

As they got closer to the end of their decent, Isaac noticed that the blonde man looked familiar. _Ah... that's..._

"Yo!" Ezreal waved. "How's it going guys?"

"Glad to be underway!" Vega clapped his hands together and shook Ezreal's hand. "Good to see that you made it."

Ezreal smiled and nodded at the summoner before turning his attention to Isaac. "Yo Archangel, how have you been?" He asked, offering his hand for a shake.

Isaac took it and nodded in response. "Bored, to be honest. Glad to finally leave that damn Institute." He replied as they shook. "What are you doing here?"

Ezreal pointed to the horses. "A mutual friend of ours asked for a favor. I'll be playing your guide while you're out and about in Valoran."

_Mutual friend? He probably means Kasubel... although I wouldn't call him a friend..._

Mute's avatar appeared next to Isaac. "How far to Piltover?" She asked the other two.

Vega opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by a surprised looking Ezreal. "What? Who are you?" He asked, pointing at Mute.

_Oh right... he doesn't know..._

"Name's Mute, a pleasure to meet you Ezreal." She said, taking a bow. Isaac rolled his eyes. _That polite act of hers... she's not fooling me..._

"Umm... thanks. The pleasure is all mine." Ezreal replied, cautiously looking Mute up and down. "What are you?"

"I'm an AI, artificial intelligence, assigned to Archangel." Mute took a leaned back stance. "You could say I'm his partner in crime."

"Oh, well, glad to have you aboard." Ezreal waved with a smile, although his expression clearly stated he still didn't understand what Mute really was. _Artificial intelligence is still a long ways off for these guys... _Isaac thought, but then he remembered that robot he met in Summoner's Rift, Blitzcrank. _Ok, maybe not too far off._

"So, back to me first question, how long until we reach this city?" Mute asked again.

"On normal horseback, it would take us four days..." Ezreal said, before thrusting his hand over his shoulder to point at the three glowing horses behind him. "But thanks to the League, we've got these summoned horses that'll get us there by tomorrow."

_Fancy..._ Isaac looked the horses over again. _Summoned, so the summoner's made them I guess?_

"Very good, shall we?" Mute took another bow and her avatar vanished.

"Yes, I'm eager to be off." Vega rolled his shoulders and mounted the first horse.

"What's up with that polite lady-like attitude just now?" Isaac quietly asked Mute as he approached one of the horses.

Mute's grinning face appeared in her usual spot in his HUD and gave a shrug. "First impressions are important, it balances out your "it's just all business" approach you have."

Isaac rolled his eyes and tried to mount one of the horses. To his frustration it wasn't as easy as it looked, so it took him a good minute to finally get himself properly in the saddle; all the while Ezreal and Vega watched on grinning and Mute's snickering in his helmet.

"Having issues?" Ezreal chuckled as Isaac finally got himself in the saddle. "Have you never ridden a horse before?"

"No." Isaac growled. "There's no need for riding horses anymore in my world." _We've got aircraft and cars for that crap! _Isaac tried to hide the frustration in his voice over having such difficultly with something that he found so trivial, but he must've failed since both Ezreal and Vega we're chuckling.

"It appears there IS something that the great Archangel is incapable of." Vega laughed. Isaac ignored the jab and made sure he was properly saddled up.

"Let's just go..." Isaac mumbled in response, still feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Right," Ezreal nodded and pressed his horse onwards. "Follow me." And he took off, with Vega quickly galloping behind.

Isaac on the other hand had a little more difficulty starting off, but his horse quickly got up to speed and the three of them sped away from the Institute; all the while Mute was laughing in Isaac's helmet at his frustration at riding horseback.

**Meeting**

**Havori province, Ionia**

The once peaceful mountain village was burning. Flames engulfed the once breathtaking architecture, incinerating everything. Twenty soldiers rode up on steeds to the burning village, stopping at the flaming entrance. At the head of the group was a young woman clad in bright red and grey armor. Floating behind her fair blue haired head was the esteemed Mantle of Decorum, Ionia's highest decoration, and strapped to her back was a large orb with four blades attached to it.

The soldiers behind the beautiful woman talked among themselves about the sight of the village.

"Damn, we're too late."

"Who could've done this?"

"Do you think anyone survived?"

"Hush." The woman said, bringing all whispering to a halt. She narrowed her eyes, scanning the area before her. "Draw your swords."

The sounds of the nineteen mounted Ionian soldiers drawing their blades filled the air. The orb in the woman's possession came to life; the four blades detached themselves, all five airborne object floating to the front of her. The woman raised her hand and twisted her wrist. Responding to her movement the four blades quickly began to spin in circle around her.

With her entire unit ready for battle, Irelia dismounted and scanned ahead for the enemy she sensed. "Show yourselves!" She shouted, commanding the hidden enemy to reveal themselves. If they were her enemy, they would not listen. If they were not her enemies, they would obey her.

"As you wish." A voice said seemingly from nowhere. From the shadows casted by the burning flames, several hooded figures materialized from thin air. One of them stepped forward and removed her cowl. Underneath she still wore a green mask that covered her face from the top of the nose down.

Irelia looked this figure over and then with a motion of hand, her blades lowered themselves and returned to rest in the air in front of her. "Who did this?" She asked the masked woman.

"Zed's forces." The woman answered.

Irelia looked the woman in the eyes for a few seconds before closing her own. _Not again…_ She sorrowfully thought before looking at the burning village again. _My duty…_ Irelia walked up next to the woman, until their shoulders were almost touching, her gaze never leaving the flames.

"We did find… something though..." The woman spoke again.

"What did you find?"

Another one of the hooded figures quickly moved to the masked woman's side, handing off a wrapped up object to her. The woman took it, turned to face Irelia, and gave it to her.

Irelia held the cloth wrapped object in her hands, trying to get a feel for it. It was small, but she could feel a strange shape underneath the wrapping, her curiosity growing. She carefully undid the bindings, carefully removing the cloth; unwrapping the object that the ninjas had found. As she removed the last of the bindings, the cloth dropped to the dry earth, revealing the object.

_What is this?_ Irelia frowned as she held the mysterious object in her hand, turning it over and over again as she inspected it. It looked somewhat like a gun, a pistol to be exact. But it wasn't like any of the pistols she had seen before. Everyone she had seen looked clunky, uneven, and weighty. This one was sleek, light, and smaller than any other.

"And this was found here?" Irelia asked the ninjas, as she turned the black gun over in her hand.

"Yes, it was found lying on the ground near the village inn. Judging by the area surrounding this strange gun, it appears there was a struggle of sorts."

"A fight?" Irelia asked.

"Yes, it appeared so." The woman nodded.

"Was it the villagers?"

The masked woman shook her head in response. "I don't believe the villagers could have possibly possessed this weapon."

Irelia felt a tinge of uneasiness. "Does Zed?" She asked.

The woman shook her head again. "We have no cause to believe he or his forces do."

"So who then?" Irelia asked, trying to come up with suspects in her mind as she questioned the woman.

Silence was her answer.

_I'll have to come to an answer on my own it seems._ Irelia lowered her head to the woman as a sign on thanks. "Thank you for giving this to me, I will investigate with everything I have."

The masked woman returned the bow. "And we will search as well. Zed must be stopped, it is our duty."

_Yes, yes it is. For the people of Ionia, he will be stopped! _Irelia though as she mounted her horse again and ordered her forces to return to the Placidium. As the Ionian soldiers returned to the capital the woman with the green mask motioned her own followers to move on.

As her fellow ninjas vanished, Akali took one last look at the burning village before disappearing into the shadows.

**The City of Progress**

**Piltover**

The journey to Piltover was uneventful, but that's what made it so pleasant to Isaac. It was nice not having to worry about the possibility of someone trying to kill him or facing decimation at every turn. For the most part of the journey Vega and Ezreal were making conversation, meanwhile Isaac admired the landscapes they rode over while listening to Mute's theories on the disappearances, as well as the identity of the hooded figures in the pictures.

In summary, Mute had little idea who the kidnappers were, but she made it clear that they couldn't rule out the Ascension just yet. As for the hooded figures, Mute believed that there was a much larger possibility that the hooded figures dealing with the mana crystal thieves were related to the Ascension in some way. After all, the Ascension was stockpiling mana on earth, so that meant they had to be gathering it somehow.

After they discussed the Ascension, Isaac and Mute reviewed the situation on Firewall. From what little information that had, his last known whereabouts were in those mines near Piltover, so there was a possibility that he was still in the area. But those pictures were days old by the time Isaac got to see them, and it would be another day before they reached the city. So there was a good chance he could've skipped town by the time they got there. But the fact remained that he WAS in the area, so it was the best place to search for clues.

_How did he get there? Where did the rift send him to? What was he doing in those mines? _The questions Isaac needed to ask his missing squad-mate were endless, and he was certain Firewall would have some for him too. _If we can all link up together again, we stand a better chance at delivering a blow to the Ascension. Contrary to what the world thought, the Ascension was defeated not eliminated during the Ascension Wars. The world wanted to paint them as terrorist remains, not the organized army that once brought countries to their knees._

During their night camp out, the four of them all chatted by the fire before bed, and Isaac learned a bit more about his new companions. Ezreal was apparently some kind of famous explorer; the Grandmaster Explorer of Piltover was his official title. The massive gauntlet he used while in Summoner's Rift was something he found while exploring some pyramids. Isaac was a bit cynical of his boasts though, particularly the one where he claimed to have completely mapped out Piltover's tunnels by the age of eight.

_But then again, there might just be people like that in this world._

Vega on the other hand didn't have much of a famous background to boast about. He had come from a small Avarosan village in the Freljord, and had been sent to train as a summoner in the League a few years ago. Judging by his tone of voice when he spoke of his home, Isaac guessed he still felt loyal to these… Avarosan people and their leader, Ashe.

_Ashe? The same Ashe I fought in Summoner's Rift? She's a queen?_ Isaac had asked Vega the same questions and he answered yes to all with a wide smile. _Damn… from the way I killed her in that match I'm going to want to avoid that place for a bit._

They broke camp before sunrise the following day, and after a few difficulties consisting of Isaac trying to mount a horse again, they continued their journey. By the afternoon the group had reached their goal.

"Piltover, the City of Progress!" Ezreal waved his hands outward as the group looked over the vast city from the hilltop they were currently standing on. Isaac gazed over the city of Piltover. It wasn't anything like he was expecting. The city looked anything but medieval, with tall buildings and a massive lack of slums. The inner part of the city was protected by a single ring wall, and their seemed to be a very active port as well.

_Just like that damn book said… A city built on a small mountain in the middle of a marsh…_

"What do you think?" Ezreal asked Isaac, he seemed to what to know what the otherworlder thought of his hometown.

"It's… different than I expected…" Isaac answered honestly. "Looks… ahead of its time."

Ezreal nodded. "Well, it isn't known as the City of Progress for nothing!"

"With those tall white buildings and green grass, it almost looks… utopian." Mute commented.

"It certainly does… but is it really?" Isaac's cynical attitude kicked in again. _There is no such thing as a utopia; there will always be wars, racism, and crime. It's part of what makes people human._

"It hasn't always been the case, Piltover used to have one of the highest crime rates in all of Valoran until the last decade or so." Vega explained. "It wasn't until Caitlyn herself brought the crime lords to their knees. And the result is what you see now, one of the safest cities in all of Valoran."

Isaac gave a humph in response. _I'll judge this sheriff myself when I see her…_

"So where do we go now?" He asked. "Directly to this sheriff?"

"Soon," Ezreal responded, "First, we need to stop by my own office. There's a few things I need to gather before we meet with Cait and Vi."

"Vi?" Isaac asked. _Why does that name seem familiar?_

"Yeah, Vi is Caitlyn's partner. You met her already, in Summoner's Rift." Vega said, galloping forwards until he was in front of Isaac, looking right at him. "You know, the pink haired girl who almost killed you?"

"She's a cop?!" Isaac couldn't stop the surprise in his voice from coming out.

Vega nodded. "Yep, so don't expect a warm welcome from her at least… Vi has, a bit of a short temper."

"I'll keep that in mind…" Isaac said with a slight frown on his face, his gaze leaving Vega and back to the city before them.

"Alright, let's go. These horses probably don't have much energy left before they'll vanish." Ezreal said, giving his horse a kick and shouting out a hi-yah! He sped down the hill towards the city, with Vega close behind him.

Isaac remained where he was, still looking at the city in the distance. "You think we'll find what we're looking for here?" He asked the only one left with him.

"Maybe…" Mute responded, "But we won't find anything by standing here."

"Right…" Isaac muttered and motioned his own horse onwards to catch up to his younger, energetic companions.

As the trio walked through the city, Isaac quickly observed that the people of Piltover matched their city. They were rather polite, seemed smart (or at least not stupid and gullible as he expected peasants to be), and were rather lively. Every now and then someone would wave or call out to Ezreal as he passed them by, and he would return the welcoming with a wave.

_Guess he really is famous_. Isaac looked around, the city as they walked. It seemed much more like a modern city then a medieval one all right. People still walked everywhere and the streets were indeed busy, but there were lampposts, glowing signs, and everything of the like wherever they went in Piltover.

_Well, maybe not modern per say… this technology they seem to possess here seems rather clunky, but it's much more advanced than anything I expected to find out here._

Isaac's gaze returned to the front as he followed behind Vega and Ezreal through the bustling streets. He noticed a small group of small furry humanoids, each under a meter tall, walk past him. Isaac didn't believe what he saw and took a second look at the group. _What the hell?_

"Mute…" Isaac whispered to his AI.

"Scanning…" She replied, and after a few seconds. "There… not human, obviously, but they don't seem to be dangerous or hostile, biologically wise that is."

"So…?"

"I think… I think those are yordles."

"A yordle…" Isaac furrowed his brow in confusion, before it hit him. _Right, it was in that history book. Yordles, a sentient race of small humanoids that live in Bandle City…_

"Yep, that's them…" A wide smile grew across her face. "Aww, they look so cute!"

"Oh brother…" Isaac rolled his eyes and looked back ahead. Vega and Ezreal had gained a bit of distance from him since he had slowed down to scan the yordles, but they were still close. _Should probably catch up… _

He quickened his pace to catch up. This section of the street they were on was a little quieter, and Isaac could make out what people were saying nearby.

"Who is that?"

"Who?"

"That man in the black armor…"

"Is he a Noxian?"

Isaac frowned. They were likely talking about him, since he couldn't see anyone else in his sight with black armor.

"Hey, he looks like that new champion."

"Your right…"

"Is that… Archangel?"

"It looks like him."

"Hey Archangel! Is that you?" Someone shouted out his codename.

_Ah shit…_ Isaac hated the attention. _Do I wave like Ezreal? Or do I walk on?_

Mute snickered. "Looks like you've been spoooooted!"

"Shut up Mute…" Isaac muttered quietly, choosing to stay silent and walk on, trying to catch up to Ezreal. But he heard more people calling out to him and his uneasiness grew. _Screw it_. Isaac spotted an alley to his left and turned into it. _I'll catch up with those two in a second… and if I get lost, Ezreal seems to be famous enough that SOMEBODY in this city can point me to his office._

That's when he heard a strange snickering sound. At first he just thought it was Mute's, but she didn't seem to be laughing anymore; just grinning. And on top of that, it sounded more distant, not inside his helmet.

_What?_ Isaac slowed down to almost a standstill. _Is that sound?_

"Mute you hear that?" He asked quietly.

"What?"

"That snickering…"

"Snickering…. Wait… yeah I hear it too."

"Where?"

"You're left."

Isaac looked to his left; there was nothing but a wall there. He cautiously walked around it to see the source of the laughing. Just behind the wall, back facing him, was a girl with a familiar set of long blue pigtails. She was snickering, very unsubtly as she spray-painted the wall in front of her.

_Oh…_ Isaac just watched the girl tag the wall, cackling and snickering as she did.

"Isn't that…?" Mute began.

"I think so…" Isaac shook his head and let out a sigh, walking up behind the girl. She didn't seem to notice him, because she didn't stop tagging the wall. Isaac looked over her shoulder to see what she was drawing or writing on the wall, and frowned in slight confusion at what he saw.

_Jinx was here…? _Isaac rolled his eyes. _Really?_

He let out another sigh and tapped Jinx on the shoulder. "What the hell-" He began.

Jinx let out a yelp, spun around, and immediately spray-painted his visor. Isaac took a quick step back in surprise, unable to see anything now. _Oh for..._

"What the hell was that for?!" He half shouted, trying to wipe off the paint quickly. Too late, it was already dry. _Well fuck me…_

"Ar-Archangel?" Jinx's voice was filled with surprise. "Wow, I thought you were hat-lady! Whew!"

"Who the fuck is hat-lady?" Isaac asked in frustration as he tried to think of a way to get rid of the blue paint that rendered him almost blind. _If someone attacks me here, right now, I'm in deep shit._

"What's your problem?" Jinx scoffed at him.

"You're kidding right?" Isaac straightened himself up and pointed to his visor. "You just spray painted my god-damn visor!"

He heard Jinx laugh in response.

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny." Isaac crossed his arms over his chest. "Now how do I get this off?"

It was a few seconds before he heard her stop laughing. "Sorry, just give me a moment." Jinx said, still snickering at him. He heard her walk up to him and spray something on his visor. And to his surprise, he felt her grab his head and wipe his visor with something.

"Take it easy!" Isaac growled. Damn she was being rough, his suit could take it of course, but he felt like he was being played with.

"Hold still you big baby." Jinx said, "Unless you want to walk through the streets with a giant blue stain on your visor, you'll let me work here!"

Isaac rolled his eyes and stopped moving around, letting Jinx roughly wipe off his visor. Before long, the blue paint that covered his vision was gone, revealing Jinx's massive grinning face.

"There!" She took a leap back and threw her arms in the air. "All done!"

Isaac let out a sigh. "Thanks…"

"Heh, no worries." She winked at him and took a step closer, leaning over with one of her arms outstretched with her palm up. "Now pay up big boy."

Isaac looked at her hand, then back at her grinning face. "You're kidding?"

Jinx laughed in response and stood back up straight. "Yeah, I'm just messing with ya! Unless you were actually gonna pay me." She tilted her body, one hand on her hip, the other twirling a can of spray paint. "So, what brings you all the way to good ol' Piltover?"

"Business." Isaac responded curtly, "What are you doing here?"

Jinx's grin grew. "Me? I live here! Well, kind of."

"Kind of?" Isaac leaned over to the side to look at her tag. "And you're tagging that wall… why?"

Jinx's grin grew even wider. "Why?! Cuz it's AWESOME! Durr!" She performed a spin on the spot, and threw her arms out to the side of her body, as if she was presenting her tag at some big art show. "Isn't it cool? JINX WAS HERE, get it? Cuz I was here, tagging this wall!"

Isaac remained silent. _Maybe I should've just let her be…_

"Well? What do you think?" Jinx asked him, her grin never leaving.

"It's… um…. Ok…" Isaac rubbed the back of his neck, this girl made him feel really awkward. "It's… got nice colors…"

Jinx leapt up and down. "YES! Blue and pink mix the greatest!" She drew another can of spray paint from behind her back and twirled them both in her hands. "I'm gonna tag this ENTIRE block! It'll take weeks for those idiots to clean it all up. And when there done…" Jinx's smile grew even larger as if it was a talent of hers. "I'm gonna BLOW IT ALL UP!" She shouted, followed by a hysterical laugh.

Isaac was speechless. He had never met such a strange person in his life.

"Blow it up… seems… not legal… at all." Mute muttered in a sarcastic tone.

Isaac ignored her. "So… why blow it up?" He asked Jinx, hoping that she might give him a decent answer.

"Why?!" Jinx looked at him as if HE was the insane one. "Cuz it's AWESOME! Durr!" She leapt forward, landing less than a foot from Isaac. She leaned forward, resting one of her elbows on his arm. "Come on… don't you ever enjoy blowing things up? It's just so… SO MUCH FUN!" She shouted, grabbing both his arms and tried to shake him.

Isaac remained motionless for the most part, still unsure of what do to do. _What… what the hell is this lunatic's problem?!_ He sighed. _Should've just left her alone, should've just left her alone, should've just left her alone…_

Jinx, however, didn't seem done. She leapt away from him and struck a pose with one of her hands outstretched towards him with a peace sign. "I'm gonna make this city SOOOO much more exciting! I mean, come on!" She reached behind her back and pulled out a piece of paper of sorts. "They didn't even have wanted posters! Like… COME ON! WANTED POSTERS!" She stretched it out, showing it to Isaac.

He scanned the poster half attentively. It had a picture of Jinx smiling on it with a large list of crimes underneath it. _Murder, unprovoked assault, public indecency… what the hell? Murder again? Unflattering impersonation of an officer? Really petty larceny? Exorbitant weapon size? Some more murders….. Oh what the fuck… Aggravated jaywalking and forging of official wanted posters?!_

Isaac looked away from the poster and back to Jinx's grinning face. There was no longer any doubt in his mind. That poster removed all of it.

"Aggravated jaywalking… I'll remember that one…" Mute muttered. Judging by the expression on Mute's face she had reached the same conclusion that Isaac has just reached.

This woman… is batshit insane.

"Well!?" Jinx asked. "How does it look?" She rolled the poster back up and hid it behind her back.

_How much room does she have in that belt?_

"I actually had to work… REALLY hard on them! Then, I put them ALL AROUND the city! It was awesome! It made the place, sooooo much livelier!"

"Uh… huh…" Was all Isaac could answer with.

Jinx leapt up to him again, leaned forward, and rested both her forearms on his chest. "I mean, come on, those idiots here who call themselves officers NEEDED the extra help here… or else they never would've been able to even START hunting for me."

"So we're idiots huh?" Said a new, yet still familiar voice.

Isaac turned to his right to see who it was. In a different entrance to the alleyway, stood a familiar pink haired woman with all too familiar massive metal gauntlets. And she looked really pissed off.

"I've got you now, Jinx!" Vi took up a fighting style. "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" She shouted and charged forward, fist stretched outwards, aimed at Jinx.

And Isaac who was standing right next to her. _Uh-oh…_

Out of reflex Isaac turned to face Vi and took up a defensive stance with his arms across his body to block the hit. "Mute har-" He began to say the voice command to Mute when he felt a sudden force push him from behind.

_What the?_ Isaac stumbled forward, throwing a glance over his shoulder to see what had hit him. He saw the backside of Jinx as she made a run for it, but he was able to make out her grinning face as she also looked over her shoulder at him.

Then it hit Isaac. _That bitch PUSHED ME?!_

Isaac faced forward again to try and regain his balance, but the only thing he saw was a massive metal fist aimed right at his face.

_Oh this is gonna hurt…_

**Report**

**Southwestern Demacian Region**

Garen read over the report he had been writing for his lord, Jarvan IV. It contained everything he had learned since visiting the Institute. _What little I did learn, it only brought more questions to my mind. _Garen silently grumbled as he scratched his chin.

He had only returned to his force's camp the previous day, and had spent the entire present day writing the report. But even then it still wasn't complete. He had his hopes pinned on one last source that could possibly provide him with some sort of intel that would be valuable to him and his lord.

A movement at his tent's flap caught his attention, as an armored woman with short purple hair walked inside.

"Reporting as requested sir!" Quinn saluted the moment she entered the tent. Garen returned the salute from where he sat at his makeshift desk.

"What did you find?" Garen asked with his commanding voice. _Please tell me you found SOMETHING girl…_

"More deserted homes, seems like everyone in the entire community of farms and homesteads got up and left in the night without anything." Quinn reported, handing Garen her notebook. "It's just like the others, during the day, everyone is out and about, the next, no one is seen anywhere. The surrounding villages are scared."

Garen scowled slightly as he flipped through his scout's notes. _More missing people…_ "No clues?"

Quinn shook her head.

Garen let out a huff. _Damn it!_ "We'll dispatch more guards to the nearby villages to reassure them." He stated. It was their duty as soldiers of Demacia to protect its people and those in the surrounding area who affiliate themselves with the city.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" Quinn asked.

"Go ahead."

"Did the League know anything?"

Garen frowned at Quinn's question. "No, they didn't. And I won't say anymore on the matter." Garen responded. He looked down at the report he had spent the day preparing for Jarvan IV. He was hoping to add something fruitful to it, but since Quinn's scouting trip had come up empty handed there wasn't much more to add, other than the list of people that could be missing from her notebook.

_I could send out another scouting team, but if Quinn can't find anything, I doubt they'd fair any better._

"There was… one more thing sir." Quinn spoke again, "That I found, but I'm not sure if it's related to the missing people."

Garen looked back up at the young purple haired woman. "What is it?"

Quinn turned to leave. "You better come with me." She said, stopping and waiting by the tent's entrance, holding it open.

Garen narrowed his eyes, curious as to what it could be that she had found. "Very well." He said, rising from his seat and leaving his commander's tent.

"This way." Quinn quickly walked past him and towards a nearby horse with a large sack on it. Quinn's companion, Valor, sat preached on top of a post where the horse had been strapped up to. Two guards were attending the horse, looking the sack over cautiously. When Garen approached the two men jumped to attention.

"At ease." Garen said to the two soldiers. "What are you two doing here?"

Quinn answered for them. "I asked them to watch over this." She motioned to the large sack and stepped around to the other side. "Look at this."

Garen followed her around the horse. "Show me." He said to his soldier.

Quinn nodded, and rolled back the covering slightly. Garen frowned at what he saw. It was a face, but it had decayed badly, beyond recognition. He could also smell it; it was anything but pleasant, but all dead bodies stank.

"A body." Garen stated. "What of it?"

Quinn took a piece of cloth out of her pocket and handed it to Garen. "Here." She said.

Still puzzled at what Quinn was trying to show him, Garen took the folded piece of cloth and opened it, revealing a worn Demacian crest and a name.

_Captain Jack… Reynolds… That's…_

Garen's eyes darted from the cloth to the body and back again. Now he understood. "The captain of _The Winds of Honor.._." He said, furrowing his brow. "Where did you find him?"

"Washed up on shore on a small beach near where I was investigating. Valor spotted him." As Quinn said the name of her bird, Valor squawked in acknowledgment. "All the details are in my notebook."

Garen folded the cloth back up and placed it in his pocket. He took a step closer to the body to inspect it further. _He's been dead for days… just as the ship has been missing for days..._

Quinn started to speak again. "He had a several bullet holes in his torso, I counted at least eleven." Quinn reached into another one of her pouches and pulled something else out, brining her clenched fist out in front of Garen. He looked down at her hand as she opened it to reveal four small objects.

"These were the bullets he was shot with." Quinn held them out for Garen to inspect.

Garen reached down and picked one up, bringing it up to his face for a better look.

He frowned again. "I've never seen bullets like these before." He stated. _Their smaller, much smaller. But every bullet I've ever seen is spherical; these are more like cylinders with only one rounded side. _

Quinn shook her head. "Neither have I, sir."

Garen placed the bullet back in Quinn's palm with the rest. "I'll take those and add them to my report." He told the scout as she dropped the bullets back into her pouch. "What of _The Winds of Honor_? Did you find anything else about the ship?" Garen asked, although he had a fair idea that it was hopeless since the body of the captain was lying in a sack next to him.

"There were a few planks of wood, large ones, near Reynolds' body. They belonged to the ship, it had the name on the side."

Garen crossed his arms over his front, stroking his chin with one hand as he pondered Quinn's findings. "Pieces of the ship…" He quietly muttered to himself.

_The Winds of Honor… destroyed… the captain shot multiple times…_

Garen nodded, having come to a conclusion in his mind. "Quinn, pack your things. We're leaving immediately."

Quinn blinked in surprise. "Leaving? To where."

Garen turned around and started walking back to his tent. "To Demacia, to see the prince."

**Piltover's Finest**

**Piltover**

"So… you punched him in the face?" The brunette woman asked.

Vi shrugged with an apologetic look on her face. "I did say OOPS."

The brunette woman let out a massive sigh and dropped her arms onto her desk, burying her face in her hands. Ezreal planted his own face into one of his palms. Vega shook his head as he lowered it, trying to stifle a laugh. Mute on the other hand didn't try to stop herself from letting out a chuckle.

And Isaac, he just sat there in his chair opposite of the brunette with a bag of ice against his forehead.

_If I didn't have this massive headache, I'd be mildly entertained by all this…_ He sighed, flipping his helmet over in his lap with his free hand, looking down at the cracked visor. His armor's self repair had fixed most of the helmet, but it wasn't quite done with the crack on his visor. _So here I am, helmet off, showing my scars to everyone._

Right after Vi had hit him in the head, Isaac had blacked out. When he woke up he was in a jail cell with a massive headache and a completely cracked visor and a slightly dented helmet. Before he even found out where he was, the brunette woman had dragged him up to her office where Ezreal, Vega, and Vi had already been waiting. They had given him a bag of ice and some medicine for his headache (which he was reluctant to take), now he had been sitting here through Vi's explanation on what had happened n the alley.

Vi put her hands on her hips. "Hey, I was aiming at Jinx! I could've had her if not for this idiot getting in the way!"

Isaac rolled his eyes. "It's not like I purposely blocked your fist with my face…" He mumbled, just loud enough so Vi could hear him.

And he got a reaction. "Hey!" Vi half shouting at him, thrusting a finger out. "Shut up! I should lock you back up in that cell for associating with Piltover's most wanted criminal in history!"

Isaac scowled at the pink haired deputy. _Without those massive gantlets, she's got rather small hands. _"I don't even KNOW the lunatic! And I sure as hell didn't know until now that she's the damn city's most wanted!"

"Oh really?" Vi grinned, "It didn't look quite that way from the way she was all close up with you."

Isaac growled; he really didn't feel like trying to explain the whole thing over again. _That's just… Jinx being Jinx I guess?_ He sighed and rubbed the icepack against his head again. _Should've just rolled to the side, should've just rolled to the side, should've just…_

The brunette cleared her throat loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. "Ok, that's enough." She said, raising herself back up straight in her chair. "Archangel, yes? Allow me to apologize on Vi's behalf for this… incident. Please try to understand our side of things. Jinx has been nothing but trouble ever since she first arrived in Piltover, and we've been at a loss for capturing her." She stood up from her desk and walked over to Isaac, past the eye-rolling Vi. When she got to him, she extended her hand out. "Let's start over shall we? I'm Caitlyn, Sheriff of Piltover."

Isaac gaze slowly traveled to Caitlyn, looking her in the eyes. _So this is the famous sheriff huh? _He thought, looking her over. _Not a bad looker… seems sincere too I guess…_

He sighed again, and took her hand and shook it. "Archangel… sorry for… being in the wrong place at the wrong time." He apologized, half meaningful.

It seemed to be good enough for Caitlyn, as she nodded in response. "And I believe you and Vi… met… already on the Fields of Justice last week."

Vi snorted. "Yeah, got lucky is what he did."

Isaac rolled his eyes. _Competitive and violent… I still can't believe she's a cop…_

"Now that we have that all cleared up, onto business." Caitlyn announced the end to their previous argument and returned to her seat. "Now I hope I don't need to go over the case of the missing people?"

The silence around the room was her answer. "Good." She nodded. "Now then, we've questioned the mana crystal thieves we arrested and managed to get some information out of them. From what they told us, the thieves seemed to have dealt with these strangers before. Same thing, mana crystals. And every time they would deal with them inside the Everdeen Mines."

"Why the mines?" Vega asked. "There HAS to be better places then a series of mining tunnels just outside the city."

Caitlyn nodded. "Yes, that I was rather curious about that too. But this is where I believe these men…" She pointed a photo on her desk, the same one Isaac has seen before with the two groups having their exchange. "Are connected to the missing people."

"Over half of the people reported missing all worked in the Everdeen Mines." Vi explained, pacing around. "We checked the mines over before, and even staked them out on two occasions. But we came up with nothing aside from being covered in dirt and crap!"

"And then one day I, I saw this." Caitlyn pointed to the pictures again. "In the mines. During the middle of the day."

Mute crossed her arms. "Alright… while there IS a link there, it doesn't mean that the two are actually connected." She said. "It almost feels like we're grasping at straws here."

Caitlyn nodded again. "While that may be so, as Vega pointed out, the Everdeen Mines is a very odd place for people to do deals in, when there are possibly hundreds of better options." She paused for a second to pick up another photo, looking at it carefully. "And on top of that… this man was there too…"

Vi crossed her arms and looked at Isaac. "Well, YOU we're in Summoner's Rift at the time that these were taken… I can vouch for that." She started, but her expression changed to one of suspicion. "But the resemblance is rather uncanny…"

He sighed in response. _Crap… I guess I better be straight with them…_ He looked up and saw that everyone's eyes were on him. Before he said anything, he exchanged a quick look with Mute's avatar, and saw her nod slightly. _Alright, here goes…_

"Firewall." Isaac said, pausing for a second as he chose his next words carefully. "He… got sucked in by the rift that took sent us here, just before I did."

"So…" Caitlyn began. "Is he friend, or foe?"

"Friend… to me at least." Isaac started, "But right now, there's a good chance that he has no idea where he is. So a result of that is that he might be hostile to all of you. He didn't have a group of summoner's and a journalist explain it to him like I did."

Vi picked up a magazine from Caitlyn's desk. "You mean this right?" She asked with a grin, waving the papers around.

Isaac raised his eyebrow. "What are those?"

"The Journal of Justice. Your interview is posted on the front page." She grinned.

Isaac's eyes went wide open. "Wh-what?" _My interview with that dope is on the FRONT PAGE of a magazine?! _

Mute let out a loud laugh. Isaac shot her a scowl, but she didn't catch it since she was holding her sides as she howled. _Big help you are…_

"You heard me. In fact, the entire first five pages are dedicated to you." She said, opening the magazine up and flipping through the pages. "Earth huh? Seems like a lame name for a world to me."

_And Valoran is any better?_ Isaac shook his head, rubbing his forehead. _This is unbelievable… first that League match, now my god-damn interview… I'm going to be known all across this damn world…_

_Guess I won't be able to just run away on my own now… _

Caitlyn cleared her throat again. "Anyways, I would like it if you could all join us in searching the mines again. With your help, the help of a summoner, and with the assistance of the Grandmaster Explorer, there's a chance we might be able to come up with some evidence as to who these men are. And the whereabouts of your missing companion."

Ezreal nodded. "Sounds like a plan, I'm in!"

"Same here." Vega chimed in.

Isaac stood up from his chair, dropping the ice bag back down on it. "Firewall will likely be armed with advanced weaponry from my world." He started, placing his helmet back over his head, sealing his suit up again. The helmet had almost completely repaired itself, the once massive crack being centimeters in length now. "So if we run into Firewall, let me deal with him."

Caitlyn and Vi exchanged a look, and then nodded. "Very well." The sheriff answered. She rose from her seat and grabbed a purple top hat and a strange looking rifle. She placed her hat on her head, giving it a tip. "Shall we?"

**?**

**Unknown Location  
**

In a dark room, somewhere, a strange voice could be heard…

"Belts? Check. Zap pistol? Check. Grenades? Not enough. Pow-Pow? Check. Ammo for Pow-Pow? Check. Fishbones? Check. Enough grenades now? Check. Is my arm still attached to my body? Check?"

There was a high pitched laugh. "With Archi in town, it's time to have some extra fun! Outsmarting fat-hands and hat-lady all the time is fun as it is, but this… THIS is gonna be grrrrrrrreat!"

Leaping up in the air and striking a pose with her rocket launcher Fishbones out and ready, Jinx's wide insane grin stretched across her face. "I'm bringing guns to the knife fight!"


	8. Chapter 7 - Search

**Search**

**Everdeen Mines, near Piltover**

"Is this the place?" Vega asked, as the group arrived at an entrance to what appeared to be a large tunnel. There were two railroads leading inside with various mine carts lying around.

_Looks like it hasn't been used lately..._ Isaac thought as he scanned the surroundings.

"Yes." Caitlyn nodded. Vi on the other hand snorted.

"What? The railroad and the mine cart gave it away?" She said, lightly kicking the said mine cart to her right.

"Hey, there's supposed to be a lot of mines around Piltover." Vega retorted.

"Enough." Caitlyn muttered. "Let's go."

The group ventured into the tunnel, and it wasn't long before darkness was all that awaited them.

"Mute, get the lights." Isaac said to his partner.

"Got it." Mute replied, and the small LEDs mounted on each side of Isaac's helmet flickered on, lighting up the dark. _Looks like a textbook mine shaft to me..._ He thought, scanning the area that awaited them. Dirt covered the walls, and the entire tunnel seemed to be unnatural. _Looks like the entire tunnel was dug out._

The others did the same. Ezreal turned his hardhat's flashlight on; Caitlyn did the same with the light strapped to her sniper. Vega summoned up a light with his hand, waving it around and seemed satisfied. Vi on the other hand, was having difficulties.

"Uh, a little help?" Vi mumbled. She couldn't turn on the flashlight strapped around her forehead since she had her massive gauntlets equipped. Caitlyn walked over to her partner and flicked it on for her.

"There you go cupcake, need me to wipe your bottom too?" She joked.

"Oh shut up..." Vi grumbled.

Isaac focused on the task at hand. "Can you pick anything up Mute?"

Mute's face appeared in his HUD. "With our borderline broken scanners? No, not a thing." She shook her head. "If you want me to pick anything up, we'll either have to be looking right at it or standing directly on top of it."

Isaac frowned. "Great. That's going to make this a little more difficult." He let out a brief sigh. "Just activate our team-locater and GPS. If Firewall is actually nearby, it would be nice if we could find each other."

Mute nodded. "Got it, turning them on now."

"How deep do we have to go?" Ezreal asked. Isaac turned around to see that he was looking at Caitlyn, his hardhat's flashlight shinning in her face.

"Don't look at me!" Caitlyn mumbled as she tried to block the light with her hand.

"Oops, sorry." Ezreal looked away.

"Thank you, now it's about a twenty minute walk." Caitlyn said.

Isaac glanced back down to the dark tunnel. _Who knows what we might find down here... better be prepared. _Isaac closed his eyes and focused his powers out in front of him; his body rearing back a he did so. He pictured a rifle in his mind and after a charging-up sound and a pop, he opened his eyes to see his dark matter SCAR hovering in front of him.

_There._ Isaac grasped the rifle and shouldered it, a felt as if someone was watching him. He glanced around and noticed that Caitlyn was eyeing his rifle.

"Nice trick. What kind of gun is that supposed to be?" She asked.

It's a SCAR." Isaac replied, and after Caitlyn made a slightly confused expression, he added. "Think of it a as a... small machine gun."

"Ah. That will be useful in close quarters." Caitlyn nodded, gripping her sniper rifle and walked past him. "Let's move." She stated and the group descended deeper into the mines.

For the most part, everyone remained quiet. Every now and then Vega would extinguish the light in his hand and re-light it within a few seconds, Ezreal would write something down in a book of his, and at one point in time Caitlyn stepped in a deep puddle and cursed, only to be told to "walk it off" by Vi.

Isaac on the other hand remained silent, keeping his rifle shoulder and scanning the area. _Nothing so far... Mute hasn't picked anything up either._

Before long though, they reached a much wider area and Caitlyn came to a halt. "Down there," she pointed to a lower area of the mines about forty or so meters away. "That's where the exchange had gone down." She said and resumed walking towards said location.

"So, what's the plan?" Vega asked. "Do we split up and search the area?"

"We already checked this area over three times." Vi said.

"Yes, but we did so without the Grandmaster Explorer." Caitlyn stated, looking over her shoulder at Ezreal. "What do you think?"

Ezreal paused, covering his mouth with one of his hands, seemingly in thought. After a few moments he spoke. "I don't think splitting up would be wise here. If we run into Archangel's friend Firewall we'll need him to talk. And if we actually do run into trouble down here, it's best if we're all together.

Isaac nodded. _Good points._

The group reached the site of the exchange. "I caught the thieves down that way," Caitlyn explained, pointing to the tunnel on their left. "And the hooded figures went this way." She pointed to the right tunnel.

"We came back the next day, but we didn't find anything down the right side." Vi added. "It goes on for a long time though, the tunnel that is. Could've hidden anywhere."

"Or there could've been a secret passage." Caitlyn added to Vi's addition.

Vi sighed, rolling her eyes. "You and your obsession with secret passages..."

Caitlyn grinned and tipped her hat at her partner. "I caught you in one didn't I?"

That shut Vi up.

_Back on task people..._ "So, we go right?" He half asked, half suggested.

"Bingo." Ezreal said with a grin. "I'll lead the way." Ezreal opened up his backpack and took out a familiar large gauntlet. He slid his hand into and a bright light emitted from it. He started to walk off in the direction they had decided on, and the light shone even brighter, illuminating the surroundings. "Follow me."

_Handy gadget he's got there._ Isaac thought, and he moved to follow the explorer. As he walked past Vi, he did notice the pink haired girl flip her partner off with her massive gauntlets.

Kasubel read over the letter he had received from Bligewater. He frowned as he looked its contents over, trying to process it all in his mind. _Miss Fortune needs to work on her bloody handwriting... _He sighed as he read on.

_Strange sightings of unknown ships that suddenly vanish beneath the waves, strange sightings of lights floating in the air..._ Kasubel stroked his beard. _All of these sightings have occurred in the Guardian's Sea. But… what are they?_

According to the letter, the seafarers of Bligewater thought they were ghosts, but Kasubel thought that was just them being superstitious. _Yes, ghosts exist, but I doubt they are the cause of all these sightings. _

He let out a sigh, set the letter down on his desk and leaned back into his chair, staring at the roof. If it wasn't ghosts, then what was it?

Kasubel all too well wanted to link it to the missing people, but there really wasn't any connection between the two. But still, maybe it wouldn't hurt to investigate.

He had yet to hear from summoner Vega, who he had sent with Archangel along with Ezreal. With the summoned mounts they had, they should've reached Piltover awhile ago.

_If there is no word from them, that means there busy_. Kasubel reassured himself. He looked back down at the letter, trying to think of a way to deal with the sightings. _Wait… _He thought. _Archangel said that there is a possibility that the kidnappers are from his world… which means that they have advanced technology… _

Could they be the sightings? Kasubel wasn't sure, but maybe. He would have to contact them and ask for Archangel's advice, as loath as he was to do so. _I'm not fully sold on his loyalty; I don't want to have so much resting on one man's shoulders. _He frowned. He would have to contact them anyways.

Kasubel stood up from his desk and wandered over to his summoner's orb, placing his hands on it and closed his eyes. _I better contact them anyways…_ He thought, and started to process his magic though the orb.

_Wait! _He stopped and opened his eyes. _What if they're in the middle of their investigation? Wouldn't me contacting Vega now interrupt them? _He removed his hands from the orb and sighed.

He would have to wait until they called him. _The wait is killing me…_

"Still nothing?" Mute complained. Isaac ignored her, running his armored hand along the tunnel's walls, hoping to feel a nook or something that seemed out of place.

They had been in the mine for hours now, searching the place for anything. But so far they had come up with nothing. _We haven't even reached the end of this tunnel yet._ They had been moving at an extremely slow pace, checking everything over as they ventured through the tunnel. He glanced around to see what the others were up to. Vega, like Isaac, was feeling the walls for anything strange. Caitlyn was checking the roof of the tunnel, using her sniper's flashlight to illuminate certain spots. Vi had her head down and was walking very slowly, checking the earth beneath their feet. Ezreal was a little farther up ahead, moving large rocks around and checking underneath them.

_While it's nice to see everyone actually working here, we're not going to find anything like this grouped up..._ Isaac thought. _It'll take all day at this rate to check the entire tunnel. Days if this tunnel branches off into multiples._

"Mute, did you pick anything up yet?" Isaac asked Mute again.

She let out a sigh. "If I had found something I would've told you."

Isaac left it at that, and resumed searching. A few seconds later he heard Vi grumble.

"Grr! This isn't getting us anywhere. We'll be down in this damn cave for days at this rate!" She complained. "Let's just split up already! We can take whatever comes at us!"

Everyone turned to look at Vi, and as they did their lights flashed all over her body and face, causing her to cover herself with her hands. "HEY! Those are bright!" she growled.

"Sorry." Everyone mumbled and turned away.

Isaac agreed with her though. This was taking too long.

"I agree." Isaac spoke up. "We should split up."

Ezreal nodded, the light from his hardhat motioning with him. "Same, I was hoping we'd be moving faster but at this rate..." He paused. "Cait, you and me will move ahead a bit. You three keep looking around here."

"Sounds good to me." Vega nodded, he was the fartherest back.

Caitlyn shouldered her rifle and started to turn to follow Ezreal. "Just don't go smashing walls in Vi." She said.

Vi waved one of her massive hands around. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. No promises."

Caitlyn just shook her head and followed after Ezreal.

Silence followed for a good minute.

"So... do we stay here a little longer, or move up a bit?" Vega asked.

"Hmm..." Isaac mumbled, thinking about it as he examined the walls. _We've checked this over good enough, maybe..._

Vi answered in his place. "Yeah, the only things I've spotted are a couple of rocks I want to smash in. Let's move before I actually do it." She said, and Isaac heard her walking past him. Isaac followed, spotting the faint light from Ezreal's gauntlet in the distance.

_We shouldn't move too far ahead... here should be good for now._ "Let's stop here and give this area a quick check." Isaac said, after the group had traveled a good forty meters.

Vega looked back to the walls and started examining them.

"Yes ma'am." Vi mumbled, very quietly, but Isaac still heard her. He chose to ignore the woman's remarks and instead checked the side opposite of Vega.

"What do you think Mute?" Isaac asked his trusted companion. "Think this is a waste of time?"

Mute's face appeared in the usual spot in his HUD. "It could be, but then again I think we'd torture ourselves more if we didn't check the place."

"So... better safe than sorry right?"

Mute shrugged. "Pretty much. If it turns out to be a total waste, we can bitch about it later."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Of course..." He mumbled.

"What the heck?" Vega's voice grabbed his attention. Isaac turned around and looked in the summoner's direction. He was hunched over a rock, examining it closely.

"You find something?" Isaac asked.

"I... think... but..." Vega seemed hesitant in his responses.

Isaac walked over to the summoner and stood behind him, peering over his shoulder. _The hell?_ It was... something alright. There was a small lever in the wall with a sign that read "Yank me" strung around it.

"You guys find something?" Vi asked. Isaac looked to the side to see her walk up next to him with a puzzled expression. "Yank me? What?"

"How did you find this?" Isaac asked. _More like, how the hell did someone miss this?_

"Just now, it was hidden behind a rock." Vega answered. "What should we do?"

Mute's avatar appeared to Isaac's right, between himself and Vi. "Levers that have a "Yank Me" sign hanging around them generally are bad news." She cautioned.

"Yeah..." Vi muttered. "I'm going to agree with the glowing blue girl..."

"So... why is it here then?" Isaac asked. Nobody answered.

After a few seconds of them staring at the lever, Vi tilted her head. "That handwriting... looks familiar..." She muttered quietly.

Vega shrugged. "Fuck it." He said and reached out to the lever.

Isaac was about to say something, to caution Vega, but he noticed Vi's eyes dart wide open. "Wait! No!" She shouted, but she was too late as Vega grabbed the lever and pulled down on it. There was a quiet "thunk" sound as he pulled it, and Isaac noticed a motion above them.

His eyes darted upwards and he reached out to grab Vega, but he wasn't fast enough. He could only watch a wooden board of sorts drop down from a hidden place in the roof and come speeding down, onto the top of the summoner's head with a loud "Whack!"

"OW!" Vega shouted, stumbling to the side with his hands darting to his head where the board had hit him. "What the fuck?!"

Isaac ignored the summoner's complaining though; instead his eyes were now focused on the board that was hanging at his and Vi's eye level.

_It's a sigh..._

It had too words on it, painted in pink; after reading them Isaac let out a sigh.

"Great..." He mumbled.

"Aw shit." Vi cursed.

"Uh-oh." Mute added.

"What?" Isaac heard Vega ask from behind as he stumbled, his voice still laced with pain. "What is it? A sign...?" Vega paused. "Get Jinxed? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

_I think, I have a hunch..._ Isaac thought gloomily. He noticed a small object drop down from behind the sign and hit the ground with a "ping", rolling to his feet. He looked down, and judging by the way the ground lit up with light, he wasn't the only one looking down at the sudden object.

It was a grenade, with the word "SURPRISE!" painted on the side in pink with a pink smiley face.

"Oh shit." Vi muttered.

With lightning speed, Isaac violently threw both his arms out at Vega and Vi, shoving them aside as he dove on the grenade.

"Mute harden!" Isaac shouted to his AI, and as he did, the grenade exploded with a deafening boom.

**The Loose Cannon**

**Everdeen Mines, near Piltover**

Everything was a blur. Every sound was mumbled. Every movement he made was uncoordinated. Every sense in Isaac's body was completely screwed up.

_Oh... my head..._ Isaac thought, the ringing in his ears was driving him insane, and the fact that everything was a blur didn't help him either. He tried getting to his feet, but he couldn't coordinate his movements and instead dropped back face-first into the ground.

_Shell-shocked... I'm going to have to wait for a few seconds..._ He thought, staying calm. _I can move, so I'm not paralyzed, and I can still hear some mummers, so I'm not deaf. _

The ringing faded slowly, and soon Isaac could make out various tones of voices behind him. His vision began to return as well. Now he could at least make out objects... somewhat. He felt something grab onto him, a hand he guessed? It rolled him over onto his back, and Isaac tried to make out the face that was hovering over his head.

_Blonde... messy... hardhat... Ezreal?_ Isaac guessed. His vision was still just blurry enough that he couldn't make out the face perfectly. But the outline and the basic facial features told him enough. _Yeah, that's Ezreal._

Isaac mustered his strength and sat up, waving his hand around as he did. "I'm fine, I'm fine." He mumbled, but even his own voice sounded distant. "Just, a little dizzy."

He saw another human shaped blur rush to his other side, this one seemed to have some sort of hood. _Hood... hood... Vega._ Isaac pinned the figure down in his mind. _Damn, thoughts are still a bit slow. I must be more shaken up then I thought._

The blur that he suspected was Vega placed and arm on the top of his helmet, and Isaac could see a green light emit from the younger man's hand. Before Isaac could question what it was, his vision flashed green.

And suddenly...

"There!" Vega exclaimed. "How about now?"

_What?_ Isaac blinked a few times and shook his head. He could suddenly hear and see fine. _Huh?_

"How...?" Isaac started. "What did you just do?"

"A healing spell. You looked a more than a little dizzy." Vega grinned as he said that, but his expression quickly changed to one of concern. "You ok? Does it hurt anywhere?"

"Archangel... with all due respect... ARE YOU BATSHIT CRAZY?!" Isaac heard Mute shout at him. Her avatar appeared in the air right in front of his face. She had her hands on her hips and thrust her head forwards; her expression clearly showed Isaac that she was pissed.

"You should know the answer to that by now Mute." Isaac tried to get to his feet again, finding it much easier to move now; although every muscle in his body was sore now.

"That little stunt you just pulled probably shed a few years off my life!" Mute cursed at him. "You JUMPED on a fucking GRENADE!"

"Relax, I stopped a tank shell once with a harden suit remember?" He waved her off. _Sorry I worried you, but what other option did I have? Where could I have kicked it to? The wall right behind it? The other two would've been shredded by shrapnel._

"What happened?" Ezreal asked, his face also concerned. Both men were crouched down next to him. Slightly off to the side, Isaac could see Caitlyn helping Vi up.

"I'll tell you what happened!" Vi cursed, she seemed more pissed off then Mute did. "That crazy bitch left us a god-damn present!" Vi spat, her armored clothing was covered in dirt and dust and she had a small bleeding cut on the cheek opposite of her tattoo. Other than that she seemed ok.

"Who? Jinx?" Caitlyn asked, trying to brush off the dirt on her partner's clothing.

Vi cursed again. "Even down here she's fucking with us! God-damn it!" She shouted, and charged at the wall where the sign once was.

_Oh shit!_ Isaac, Ezreal, and Vega all tumbled out of the way as Vi stormed past them, and smashed the wall with her massive armored fist. The rumbling sound from her fist filled the sound waves, and dust from the shockwave she emitted filled the tunnel, causing everyone to cough.

"Ahhh... its great having no lungs." Mute laughed, her previous angry attitude seemingly gone.

"Vi! Calm down!" Caitlyn managed to say between coughs.

"We're in mining tunnel!" Ezreal coughed. "Don't go smashing holes in the walls!"

"S-sorry." Vi replied, coughing twice. "Umm, guys? I think I found our passage."

"What?" Isaac asked, trying his hardest not to cough. _She found something by smashing a wall in!?_

When the dust cleared, it all made sense. Vi stood in the center of a newly punched hole in the wall, revealing a hidden tunnel on the other side. She twister her upper body to look back at the group.

"Well... like I always say." Vi shrugged. "Sometimes, you gotta make a door."

Isaac got to his feet and walked over, peering into the new tunnel. It didn't go very far, maybe twenty meters. He turned around and searched the ground for where he dropped his DM rifle. _There it is._ He thought as he picked it up, shouldered it, and wandered into the new cave Vi had found, right behind the rest of the group.

As the group got close to the end of the new tunnel, Isaac saw all of them stop and look down.

"Can't see anything down there." Vi said. Isaac peered over their shoulders to see what they meant. Sure enough, there was a hole in the earth, and it was pitch black. Ezreal removed his backpack and began to search it. A few seconds later he drew out a torch and a match.

"This'll help." He said, striking the match and lighting the torch. After letting it burn for a few seconds, he held it over the hole, and dropped it. All five of them peered into the hole to see it fall.

After a several seconds, it landed in what seemed to be water, and extinguished.

Ezreal gave a whistle and Vi cursed again.

"It's a lake... great." She muttered.

"Are we even sure that this is the right way?" Vega asked.

"It's the only thing we've got right now." Ezreal replied, reaching into his backpack again.

_An underground lake... _Isaac thought.

Mute's face appeared in his HUD. "Don't forget about your oxygen tanks being FUBAR."

"I haven't." Isaac muttered. _If that lake turns out to be deep, I'm going to sink like a rock._

"Here." Isaac felt Ezreal shove something against his hand. He looked down to see what it was. _A rope?_ Isaac threw a curious look at the explorer. He was hooking up a belt around his waist and attaching the rope to it.

_Oh... I see._ Isaac nodded, and took the rope. "You got something to anchor this with?" He asked.

Ezreal handed him a metal spike over his shoulder. Isaac took it and looked around for a good place to plant it. _Nothing but rocks in here... going to need a lot of force..._ He looked at Vi. _Bingo_.

"Vi. Plant this somewhere so I can tie a rope around it." He nudged the pink haired police officer with blunt end of the spike. She looked down at it for a moment with a questioning look, but after throwing a glance at Ezreal, she clued in.

"Ok..." She took it and looked around for a good spot. "Here!" She slammed it into the wall with a grunt. Isaac took a few steps over to it and gave it a tug. _That's stuck in there alright._ He nodded; satisfied it wasn't going to give out right away.

"You're going down there?" Vega asked.

"You got a better idea?" Ezreal responded, walking up to the hole. "Come on, it's not like I don't do this for a living."

"Well, it's a good thing you can swim." Caitlyn said, using her sniper's flashlight to try and spot anything in the hole.

Ezreal looked at Isaac. "We good?"

Isaac gave the rope another quick tug. "Yeah, that'll hold you. If worse comes to worse, it's not like you can't teleport right?"

Ezreal tossed the remainder of the rope to Isaac. "Just take it slow." He said, and he started to descend. Isaac held onto the rope with his feet firmly planted to ground. The others also grabbed on, making it easier to support the explorer's weight. _Although he really doesn't weigh much..._ Isaac thought about it, as he watched the others in front of him slowly slack the rope for Ezreal as he descended.

"See anything?" Vi called out.

"Not yet. This underground lake is really big." Isaac heard Ezreal call back.

"Any sight of dry land?" Caitlyn shouted back.

"Uh... Yeah, there's a big rock sticking out of the lake. Looks traversable, but aside from that I don't see anything else..."

"So... nothing then?" Vega asked.

"I hope he finds SOMETHING." Vi muttered.

"Stop!" Ezreal shouted, and all four of them gripped the rope.

_Oh I hope he's not in shit..._

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn shouted at the out of sight explorer.

"I just want to look around." Ezreal called back. "Just hold me here for a bit."

"Whew... thought he was about to get eaten by a shark." Vi muttered.

Isaac raised an eyebrow at that. _What?_

"You... think sharks live in underground caves?" Caitlyn questioned.

"Well, THIS one does!" Isaac heard a new voice say. Familiar higher pitched voice. Everyone turned their heads to look at the source of the voice behind Isaac, and each one had a surprised expression on his or her face.

_Uh-oh._

He looked over his shoulder to confirm his fears. And there, in the smashed entrance to the hidden tunnel Vi had found, stood a lone skinny figure carrying a something that looked like a rocket launcher.

"Oh, bullocks..." Caitlyn mumbled.

The lights from their head/helmet flashlights lit up Jinx's face, revealing her signature crazy smile and pink eyes. If the lights bothered her, she didn't show it. Instead she leveled her rocket launcher, which had a shark head for the cannon, right at them.

"Hey Fishbones, do you think we otta' help these people find their way back home?" She asked, her head turned and looking at her rocket launcher. Jinx reached up to the jaw of her rocket launcher's shark head and started to mimic it talking. "Yes. They look awfully lost; helping them would be a good thing!" She said in a lower, stranger tone of voice.

Jinx growled, and punched the side of her rocket launcher. "No you dummy! We're gonna' enjoy this!" She snarled, and an immediately, her insane smile returned and she laughed.

Isaac was speechless.

"Did she... just talk to her rocket launcher?" He heard Vega ask, his voice betraying his disbelief.

"Yes... yes she just did." Caitlyn muttered.

"JINX!" Vi shouted, and Isaac felt the rope lunge forward slightly. He renewed his grip and twisted his head to look at Vi, who had let go of the rope, and now stood facing Jinx with snarl on her face.

"Whoa!" He heard Ezreal shout in the distance. "What's going on up there?!"

"Vi! So good to see you again!" Jinx laughed. "Really, you never call, you never wanna' hang out anymore..."

"Shut it!" Vi shouted at their soon-to-be attacker. "I've got the punch line to your stupid joke right, HERE!" She pounded her fists together and made ready to charge.

Jinx responded to Vi's aggression by taking aim with her rocket launcher. "Duck!" She shouted and squeezed the trigger. "Just kidding, that won't help!" She finished with a laugh as a single rocket ejected from her launcher.

Aimed right at Vi.

_Shit!_ Isaac cursed, doing the only thing he could do. He swept Vi's legs out from underneath her, causing the pink haired officer to come crashing to the ground, and causing the rocket to miss her.

_Wait... that rocket was too wide... which means._

The rocket hit the wall behind them and exploded, sending bits of rock, dirt, dust, and smoke everywhere. Before he could shout anything, the sounds of something collapsing drowned all noise out, and he felt the ground give out from underneath him. _Oh shit!_

Isaac let go of the rope and twisted his body around, trying to grab onto the rocky floor. As he did, the ground gave out and his body dropped down. Cursing in his mind, he grabbed the earth where he had been standing moments before and his chest slammed into the solid rock. As he did, he could hear Jinx laughing.

He also could hear his companion's screams quickly grow distant.

_Oh no.._.Isaac looked over his shoulder back at where his companions should have been, only to see nothing but a much larger hole. Next, he looked down, and saw that there were now faint lights in the water, revealing several ripples in the lake.

_I hope they can ALL swim..._ Isaac shook his head, trying to get himself to focus on his own predicament. He was now hanging from the edge of the enlarged hole. _I'm a sitting duck here, the moment I try and pull myself up into sight, Jinx is going to light me up!_

_But not if I shoot her first_.

Isaac closed his eyes, and released his grip on the rock with one of his hands. Knowing full well his rifle was either at the bottom of the lake, or just straight up gone, Isaac focused his power into his right hand, picturing a pistol, and felt the same pain sensations as he did whenever he used his powers. After a few seconds of charging, he heard the popping sound and felt the grip of a pistol in his right hand.

_Perfect._

"Don't do anything reckless Isaac!" Mute cautioned him.

"Just let me do my job." He muttered, and focused hard. _Time slow._

As fast as he could, Isaac grabbed the earth with both hands and vaulted himself up. He managed to gain enough momentum to nearly pull himself out of the hole, but he only managed to get himself up halfway. He tilted his body forwards, and managed to get his torso outwards and onto the floor.

_This posture will at least let me shoot..._ Isaac lifted his DM pistol and aimed at Jinx, his time slow wearing off as he did.

Only to see that she was no longer alone.

Three new figures had showed up, each clad in body armor that covered them head to toe. The armor was a dark blue, almost black color, and the visors had a slight glowing blue tint to them. The armored suits looked too advanced to be native to Valoran. And Isaac recognized them instantly.

_Ascension..._

One of the three had Jinx by one of her long pigtails, yanking her head back. A second was holding a rifle with a larger then average barrel and drum clip. The third had a sidearm held to Jinx's stomach.

Jinx on the other hand, had both her hands behind her head, trying to free herself from the grip of the man who held onto her hair.

"Let go!" She shouted, her smile gone.

"Ah, shut up cunt!" The third Ascension soldier held his sidearm up to her neck. "Unless you want me to taze you." He laughed as sparks emitted from the sidearm. Jinx spat in on his visor in response.

"Oh, you WHORE!" The man shouted in anger, and reared his arm back to drive the tazer into Jinx's head.

_Oh no you don't! _

Isaac aimed at the man with the tazer and fired his DM pistol. Purple sparks emitted from the barrel as he shot. The first two rounds hit the man in the side, one in the shoulder, one in the midsection; the locations where the dark matter bullets had impacted on the man left a scorched purple, black mark.

The man grunted in pain and stumbled away from Jinx, revealing his back to Isaac. Isaac didn't let up, and fired again and again. The rounds hit the man multiple times in the back, and he let out a howling scream of pain.

The second man spotted Isaac, and shouldered his rifle. Isaac shifted his aim and fired at the second man, the round striking him in the shoulder and causing his target to stagger. _Damn it, hard to aim like this... _Isaac squeezed the trigger again, but one of rocks he had been using to hold himself up slipped, and he stumbled. The shot hit the roof instead of his intended target.

_Shit! I'm slipping!_ Isaac gritted his teeth as he tried to rebalance himself without falling backwards down the hole. But he had given the other man enough time. He aimed at Isaac and fired.

But as he squeezed the trigger, Jinx's leg darted upwards and kicked the gun up. "Psyche!" She shouted.

A round fired from the gun, hit the roof of the tunnel, and it bounced to the ground with a loud ping.

_It bounced?_ Isaac looked down at the round, and saw that it was a grenade. _A grenade launcher... ah shit._

Isaac had no choice, he pushed himself backwards to get away from the explosive, and fell into the hole. As he fell, he saw the man holding Jinx by the hair throw her to the ground and jump on her.

_Thanks Jinx._ Isaac thought as he fell, and slammed into the water below.

**Reunion**

**Lower Everdeen Mines**

He grunted from the impact as he hit the water, fighting to keep himself from sinking. _Shit! _He cursed, as he slowly sank deeper and deeper into the water.

Mute's face appeared in his HUD. "Isaac! Relax! The only oxygen in your suit is-" She began.

"Right, right!" Isaac muttered closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, and calmed himself. _Ok... I've only got minutes... maybe less, before I suffocate._

He opened them again and looked around. The lack of light made it impossible to see where he was, his helmet lights weren't doing much to help him underwater. He looked down, trying to see the bottom. _Nothing but pitch black_ He frowned, looking up. _Shit! I'm sinking!_

Isaac rapidly swam upwards, trying to get his head back above water. Even though he was giving it everything he had, he wasn't making much progress. _Suit's too heavy! I'm barely moving upwards, more so just staying in one spot!_

A bright light suddenly filled the water around him. _Huh?_ Isaac looked around, trying to spot the source. He spotted Ezreal and Vega not far away, swimming over to him, light emitting from Ezreal's gauntlet.

"Looks like they see us." Mute said.

_Then they better hurry up! _Isaac thought. He could already taste the difference in air as the oxygen in his suit started to get used up.

Sure enough, the pair swam over to Isaac and helped him resurface.

The moment his head broke free of the water, Isaac took in a deep breath. _Whew._ He thought.

"You okay?" Ezreal asked him.

Isaac nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Vega scoffed. "What? You can't swim or something?"

"The suit's too heavy. Heavy things sink." Isaac shook his head. He was able to tread water, but doing just that took a ton of effort, and that was with the aid of both of the men keeping him above water.

Ezreal and Vega guided Isaac over to the big rock that Ezreal had spotted earlier. He could see a couple of lights on the rock as well. _Flashlights? Must be the others._ Once they reached it, Isaac pulled himself out of the water and rolled onto his back, glad to be out of the water.

"You ok Archangel?" He heard Caitlyn's voice. Isaac looked over to his right and saw that both Caitlyn and Vi were soaking wet.

"Yeah, I'm good." Isaac responded. Caitlyn was trying to get the water out of her sniper rifle, and Vi had removed one of her gauntlets, trying to get as much of the water out of it as well.

"That damn bitch!" Vi cursed. "Why did she have to show up now?"

"Is she still up there?" Ezreal asked, turning to face the hole in which they had fallen from.

"I guess we've got some explaining to do..." Mute grinned. She was still in his HUD, so only he could hear her.

Isaac nodded. _Right..._ He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"She's not up there anymore. But we've got a new problem." Isaac started, getting to his feet and looking at everyone's faces to make sure they were listening. Each one of his companions we're looking right at him, waiting for his next words. _I hate being on the spot..._

"Jinx has been... captured, by an organization called the Ascension." Isaac rubbed the back of his neck. "And their likely the ones behind these... missing people." _Might as well drop the bomb now._ He thought. He hadn't believed they were responsible for the kidnappings, but the fact they had had just captured Jinx like that made it rather clear. A bit.

"The Ascension?" Caitlyn asked. "Who are they?"

Isaac paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to make a short version. "The Ascension is... a major terrorist organization from my world. They used to be a huge military force that the world had feared, but today they're a shadow of their former selves." He explained. _Although the world wants to labeled them as gone, they were only defeated, not destroyed._

"So... there the bad guys from your world?" Vi asked as she shoved her free hand back into the gauntlet she had been draining.

"Why didn't you mention them before?" Caitlyn asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There was no evidence to connect them to the missing people." Isaac shook his head. "Not until I just saw them capture Jinx back there."

"Guys?" Ezreal interrupted. "Look I know we need to debate this, but shouldn't we figure a way out of here first?"

Everyone paused.

"Yeah... how do we?" Vi broke the silence with the million dollar question.

"Isaac?" Mute began, "I'm picking something up."

That got Isaac's full attention. He turned away from the rest of his group as they tried to come up with a way out. "Friendly or hostile?"

"Friendly... and it's coming closer."

"How far?"

"About..." Before Mute could finish, there was a rumbling sound.

"What was that?" Vega asked.

Before anyone could answer, there was a loud splash off in the distance. Everyone turned to face the direction of the splash, their lights shining over the water to try to spot the source of the sound. The lights from everyone's helmet flashlights (and Caitlyn's sniper) shone over a newly formed hole in the wall about a meter above the water, which was rippling from whatever had fallen in it.

In the entrance to the new cave, stood a figure with a similar black suit of armor, with a slightly difference helmet then Isaac's. In his hands he held an assault rifle, but he wasn't pointing it at them.

"Who is...?" Vega started.

"Isn't that...?" Vi tilted her head to the side.

"He's about that far." Mute grinned.

Isaac couldn't help but let out a light chuckle. "I'll be..." He said. _He really was down here_.

"He's hailing us, patching him through." Mute said.

Ezreal turned back to face Isaac. "What's going on?" He asked.

"He's contacting me over our..." Isaac started, "Radio." _Technically it's a radio... but the real name is too complex to explain right now._

"Didn't expect to see you down here." A new yet familiar voice spoke to Isaac. Isaac nodded in response. _Firewall_. He raised one hand and saluted. "Corporal Adam Chase, Shadow Team. Firewall, reporting in." He stated his entire title.

Isaac saluted back. "Archangel, good to see you alive and well Firewall."

"Thanks sergeant." Firewall seemed to relax. He glanced around the cave, the flashlights on his helmet shining around as he did. "How did you get down here?"

"It's... a long story." Isaac rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ok look," Vi interrupted. "As much as you and your buddy seem to be enjoying the reunion, can you ask him if he's got a way off this rock?"

_Good point._ Isaac sighed. "Firewall, you got a way out of here? Preferably without swimming."

"I got a way out." Firewall said, pointing over his shoulder into the cave in which he was standing in. "But you're going to have to swim over here."

_Great..._ Isaac sighed, and turned to face Vi, and pointed to the cave. "Exit is where he is, but we got to swim."

"Shit." Vi cursed. "Why did I even bother to drain out the water of these things?" She muttered, waving her massive gauntlets.

"Lighten up cupcake, it's only water." Caitlyn poked at her partner.

Vi snarled at Caitlyn. "Good point." She said, and gave her partner a violent shove. Caitlyn let out a brief yelp as she fell back into the water.

"It's only water, cupcake!" Vi shouted at the submerged Caitlyn, and laughed.

Isaac shook his head, and turned to Ezreal and Vega. "Hate to ask you guys for your help again..." He started.

"But I'll sink like a rock if you guys don't help me, right?" Ezreal laughed. "Let's go."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: "This is a good time to mention that chapters will now be ONLY WEEKLY, posted on Monday/Tuesdays from here on out (I'm back to school now, so between college and work, time to write is minimal atm). So, if you find that there are some shorter chapters in the near future, it's because I'm swamped with work/school, but I refuse to miss the deadline to update my story."

- Evolution Legacy


	9. Chapter 8 - The Best Laid Plans

**Firewall**

**Lower Everdeen Mines**

The group followed Firewall through a series of twisting tunnels before arriving at a rusted metal door.

"Here we are." Firewall said, pushing the door open. "Sorry about the mess, but keeping my room tidy isn't exactly a priority right now."

Isaac followed his comrade into the small lit cavern where he suspected Firewall had been hiding in for a long time. Old wooden crates and chests littered the room; some of them were rotting from what he suspected was old age. There was also an aged lantern on top of one of the crates that seemed to be the sole source of light in the room (aside from everyone else's flashlights). A bed roll was laid out near the wall, with a much more different crate nearby with the Ascension logo on it. On top of said crate, were three assault rifles and several boxes of ammo.

"What is this place?" Vi asked as she entered the room.

"My guess was that this was some old pirate hiding spot from god knows when." Firewall explained, placing his assault rifle down on the crate with the others. "Since it looked like it's been vacant for a long time, I kinda just moved in."

While everyone else looked around the room, Isaac turned his attention to his old comrade. His armor was chipped and dented, covered in scrapes and scorch marks. _Why isn't his suit self repairing those?_ Isaac wondered. There had to be only one reason. _His self repair must be damaged, or destroyed. But was that done in the transit from our world to here, or was it done afterwards?_

Firewall turned around to face Isaac, and tapped two fingers against his helmet where the mouth would be. Isaac nodded in response. _He wants to open up a private channel._

"Mute?" Isaac asked quietly.

"Got it. Opening private channel and disabling external sound." His AI replied, and after a second, a small window with the words FIREWALL appeared in his HUD's bottom left corner.

"What happened to your armor?" Isaac asked right away. "Why isn't you're self repair working?"

"It's... damaged, along with most of my suit's systems including my shields." Firewall shook his head slightly. "Night vision is out, x-ray is out, thermal is out, and that's just the start of the list."

"Same here. Mute says it all got fried when that rift shocked us."

Firewall nodded. "I thought so too." He paused for a moment before adding. "Is Mute still there?"

Mute's face appeared in the usual spot in Isaac's HUD. "Of course, how could I leave you idiots alone?"

"Good to see you too." Firewall nodded.

"So, answer a question for me Adam," Mute started, "Where is CEO? I'm not picking him up at all."

_What? _Isaac narrowed his eyes for a moment. CEO was Firewall's AI partner, like Mute was his. _How could CEO be...?_

It was a good three seconds before Firewall answered. "He's... he's gone."

"How?" Isaac asked.

Before Firewall could answer, Vi walked up into Isaac's peripherals. "Hey, how long are you two going to stand there staring at each other all creepy like?" She asked.

Isaac sighed. _That's because we have our external sounds disabled so no one can hear us you... ahh forget it._

"Mute?"

"External's back online."

"What is it?" Isaac turned his attention to Vi.

Caitlyn walked up to them and answered for her partner. "Well we've made it out of that water cavern, but now what do we do?"

_Good question..._

"While we're on that topic..." Firewall spoke up, no longer on the private channel. "What ARE you all doing down here?"

Caitlyn turned her attention to Firewall. "That is something I would like to ask you. These mines are privately owned, you shouldn't be here, let alone living down here."

"Uhh..." Firewall responded.

"Ahem!" Ezreal coughed, getting everyone's attention. "Were down here to find YOU actually, and the whereabouts of some certain individuals who I think we just discovered were called the... Ascension?"

Isaac nodded. "Yeah, them."

"Now while we're on THAT topic." Caitlyn turned back to face Isaac. "Who are they and why are they here?"

Isaac frowned. "I already told you, the Ascension is-"

"An evil organization that almost conquered the world, yes yes yes, I get that part." Caitlyn waved her hand around. "But what I want is details. And to have this question answered. Why are they here?"

Isaac bit his lower lip. "I... I can't answer that question. Not fully. Because all I have is speculation on WHY they might be here."

"Do we look like were part of the Ascension to you?" Firewall asked, shaking his head.

Vi cocked her head to the side and sighed. "Please tell me you didn't just ask that..." She groaned.

"Look." Vega waved his hands around in the air, trying to get everyone's attention. "While this IS an important matter to debate, now is not the time. If what you said is true, Archangel, then Jinx has been kidnapped by the Ascension." The young summoner said, before straightening himself out. "Now, as a summoner in service to the Institute of War, and as the summoner sent to find the causes of the missing people, I cannot allow a force from another world to take a Champion of the League prisoner."

Vi rolled her eyes and waved her massive hands in the air in a taunting gesture. "Ohhh look at me! I'm a summoner from the League! I cannot allow a FUCKING insane criminal to get kidnapped!" She spat.

Isaac rolled his eyes. _We're going in circles here... but Vega is right, we can't let the Ascension go around kidnapping people._ He rubbed the back of his neck as he thought, trying to ignore the verbal spat that had erupted between Vi and Vega._ If the Ascension has been down here for some time, that means they have to have a base nearby. The fact that they just happened to be there when Jinx was attacking us is a little too convenient _

Isaac turned to Firewall. "Does the Ascension have a base nearby?"

Firewall paused for a second, and nodded. "Yes. But I wouldn't exactly call it a base per say."

"What do you mean?"

"It's..." Firewall paused for a moment. "You know what, I think it's better if I just showed you."

"Wait, what?" Ezreal asked. He had apparently been listening to them amidst the verbal fight between Vega and Vi, which now had Caitlyn involved in trying to break it up. "You know where it is?"

Firewall nodded, turning around and walking off towards a large boulder at the back of the room. "Of course... it's where I came out of the rift." He said, and started to push the boulder with a loud grunt.

"What are you doing?" Vega asked, no longer arguing with Vi.

"Need a hand there shorty?" Vi asked, flexing her massive gauntlets.

"No... I got... it!" Firewall grunted, and with that last word, the boulder finally moved, rolling several feet and came to a rest against another rock. Where the boulder once was, another tunnel was revealed, this one much smaller.

_How many hidden tunnels are there down here?_ Isaac shook his head.

"This way." Firewall motioned with his head before crouching down and walking slowly through the tunnel.

**Overseer**

The low roofed tunnel let them to a larger, but still narrow cave. Unlike the other cave where Firewall had led them to, this one had nothing in it other than rock. And Vi commented on just that.

"There's nothing here, it's just a dead end." She muttered.

Firewall pointed to one of the walls. "There." He said.

Isaac followed his finger and inspected said wall. At first glance it seemed like every other rock wall on this massive cave system that they called the Everdeen Mines, but as he got closer, he could see what made it different.

_There's a ton of small holes... with light coming out..._ He frowned. _But... why?_ What was so interesting about it that Firewall wanted to show them?

Pondering that question, Isaac walked over to said rock wall and examined it. Aside from the holes of light, there was nothing different about it. _That means it's the holes_. Isaac found one such hole near his eye level and pressed his helmet up against it, trying to look through. As he did, he bit his lip.

_Well... mother fucker..._

It was a peep hole, they were all peep holes. And on the other side of the rocks, was pay dirt.

It was a much larger cavern, the largest one he had seen in this cave system. It was also flooded with water, and on top of that it looked like the way out, since it had a massive entrance large enough to fit an airliner jet through. _Looks like it takes us out to sea..._ Isaac thought as he looked around inside the cave. But it wasn't the formation of the cavern, or the fact the exit took them out to the ocean that had caught Isaac's eye.

But the submarine with the Ascension's stared insignia on it.

_Well..._ Isaac bit his lower lip again. _A god-damn submarine..._

"Mute?" Isaac asked his AI. "What sub is that?"

Mute's face appeared in his HUD. Another screen appeared next to hers with the schematics for the submarine displayed.

"It's a RVMS Overseer-class submarine, designed and used only by the Ascension. Primarily based off the Astute-class submarine used by the United Kingdom during the early 21st century, although instead of nuclear power it uses hydrogen fuel cells, the Overseer-class is one of the rarer Ascension subs. Only two have ever been confirmed to be destroyed during the Ascension War." Mute explained. "Although, unlike the Astute-class, the Overseer's primary role is that of a "mother submarine", and it houses several midget submarines that play a role similar to that of aircraft fighters. In addition to this carrier role, the Overseer-class houses a research suite for Ascension scientists and researchers, as well as a prisoner bay for captured POWs and VIPs that could have been captured during raids performed by the midget submarines."

_Quite the explanation..._ Isaac looked the submarine up and down. It judging by the schematics, the sleek dark blue submarine had to be around 135 ft long. Some of the crew members, all dressed in the Ascension's signature dark blue uniform and/or combat armor, were on the deck carrying crates into the sub. Isaac noticed that on the side of the hull facing them was a hole with three crewmembers attending to it.

_Looks like it's been damaged... that would explain why it's parked here instead of out in the water. Unless it's a very important base, the Ascension never like to stay in one spot for too long, that's why they have so many damn submarines in their service._

He heard Ezreal whistle. "Damn... that ship is impressive!"

"How...? What kind of ship is that?" Vi asked.

Isaac turned away from the peek hole and saw that everyone aside from Firewall was now leaning up against the rock wall peeking through one of the holes.

"Is... that a submarine?" Caitlyn asked.

"Yeah... but isn't a submarine a little beyond your guy's technology yet?" Isaac asked.

"Heimerdinger has been working on a prototype submarine, but beyond that there aren't any such vessels." Caitlyn explained. "And it sure doesn't look THAT impressive."

"So... is this where the Ascension have been kidnapping people? From a submarine?" Vi asked. "No wonder we couldn't find them, we never looked UNDERWATER!"

"I don't think so..." Vega muttered, like everyone else he also had his face pressed up against the rock. "Some of the abductions have been far inland, nowhere near water... unless that thing can fly?"

"No, it can't fly..." Isaac muttered. _Primitives..._

_But... if there's a submarine here... how come the Ascension hasn't found us yet..?_ Isaac pondered that question, looking the submarine over again. His eyes fell on a section of the submarine's tower where two crew members were attending what appeared to be a destroyed antenna. _Ah... someone has been taking shots at the ship... that antenna might have been its radar..._

He turned to look behind him where Firewall was leaning up against the opposite wall.

"I assume that those holes in the sub and that destroyed antenna were your handy work?" He asked Firewall.

The younger meta-human nodded. "Yep. I thought it would be best if I kept that submarine here and harassed rather than out in the ocean where we might never find it again."

"And this is where you came out of the rift?" Isaac asked.

Firewall nodded again, more slowly this time. "They have a rift onboard that submarine."

"What?!" Mute's avatar appeared for everyone to see, and hear. "That's impossible! There is no way that submarine could have enough power to keep one of those things running!"

Firewall waved his hands around. "No, the one on that ship was different. The one back in that base on Earth was massive, and didn't look like it was a finished product. A prototype. The one in that submarine IS the finished product! It's smaller, more compact. And right after I came stumbling out of it they shut the damn thing off."

"What... are you two talking about?" Vi asked, looking away from the peek hole and giving Isaac a confused look. "Rift... what?"

Isaac shook his head. "It's a long story... not now."

"That seems to be your excuse for everything..." She muttered before looking back through the peek hole.

_But I have more questions for my old comrade... not for your ears... _Isaac thought, tapping two fingers to his mouthpiece to signal Firewall to open the private channel. The window with his name appeared again in Isaac's HUD to show him that the channel was now open.

"What?" Firewall asked.

"Oracle?" Isaac answered with another question. "She got sucked into the rift first. Was she with you?"

_Please don't tell me she's dead..._

Firewall shook his head. "She wasn't there. I think she may have come out a different rift." He crossed his arms over his chest, lower his head. "Since they shut the rift down right after I came through, if there was anyone else who was sucked in afterwards they must have been sent somewhere else." He raised his head back up too look at Isaac, expression hidden behind his goggled visor. "Speaking of which, where did you come out? Was it another Ascension base?" He turned to look at the others. "And why are you with all the locals?"

Isaac shook his head. _We don't have time for me to give you the whole story._ "It's a long story, but the short version is that I got pulled out mid-flight and got a massive job tossed onto me."

"What kind of job?"

"The kind we're good at." Isaac shook his head. "But let's save the Q and A until later." _I've got some questions for you too. Like why are you beat to shit, where is CEO, and how the hell did you escape a submarine?_

Firewall nodded. "Ok, but what are you going to do now?"

Before Isaac could answer that, Caitlyn interrupted them. "Bullocks... look!" She cursed.

"Where?" Ezreal asked.

"Over there, near the back of the submarine."

"I don't... oh." Vi muttered.

"Shit, I see it too." Vega cursed.

Isaac cut the channel to Firewall and his external sound came back online. "What is it?" He asked.

"They got Jinx." Vega muttered.

_Well we knew THAT_. Isaac peeked through the hole again. On the opposite side of the submarine, were three armored Ascension soldiers walking around the outside of the cavern. The first one was carrying a skinny limp girl, her long blue pigtails dragging on the rocks. _They're taking her to the submarine..._ Isaac bit his lip.

The second soldier was carrying Jinx's weapons, while the third was limping behind them. _That's the bastard I should've finished off..._ Isaac cursed again.

"They're taking her to the submarine? Why?" Vega asked.

"Uhh duh?" Vi rolled her eyes. "If their kidnapping people they have to take them somewhere."

"So... we have to rescue her from aboard a submarine?" Ezreal asked. "That's going to be... difficult?"

"Woah, woah!" Vi pushed away from the rock wall and waved her massive gauntlets in the air, almost striking both Caitlyn and Vega in the process. "You guys can't be serious!? She's a criminal! A killer! Whatever those bastards do to that bitch she deserves!"

"No..." Isaac muttered. "What those bastards do to people, no one deserves." _You haven't seen the inside of some of their labs... where they do their human experimentation..._

Vi cursed again, and rounded on Isaac. "Look Archangel-"

"Vi that's enough." Caitlyn cut her partner off, standing up and marking herself eye level with the pink haired girl. "I don't like the idea of rescuing Jinx anymore then you do, but-"

Vi spun around to face her partner, back facing Isaac, waving her massive gauntlets around again. "Cait! You're siding with THEM!?"

"Don't get me wrong, we're not doing this for Jinx, we're doing this to stop the Ascension from kidnapping anyone else." Caitlyn walked over to Isaac, ignoring her still fuming partner. "But we have one condition: After we rescue Jinx she comes with us." She said to Isaac, before turning her head to face Vi again. "To her cell."

Vi snarled, biting her lower lip. After a few seconds she let out a sigh. "Fine..." She grumbled.

Caitlyn patted Vi on the head. "That's more like it cupcake." She chuckled, as Vi tried to swat her hand off with her massive gauntlets.

"Can't believe I put up with you..." Vi muttered.

"Why, the feeling is mutual my dear Vi." Caitlyn replied.

_Now that that's settled..._ Isaac turned to Firewall. "You asked me what the plan was? Have you figured it out yet?"

Firewall let out a sigh. "I was afraid you'd say that..." He shook his head. "A full on assault on an Overseer-class submarine... this is a terrible idea..."

_Ever the voice of caution..._

"Yeah... while we're on that subject..." Vega started. "How ARE we supposed to get on board?"

"There has to be a tunnel that wraps around to the other side." Ezreal said.

"What makes you so sure?" Vi asked. "In case you've forgotten, we've been down here all day because these mines twist and turn."

"And blow up." Vega added.

_That was your own damn fault you..._ Isaac rolled his eyes, and noticed that Caitlyn was giving the summoner a similar look.

"Well... he got over here somehow." Ezreal pointed at Firewall. "Which means I'm sure you know the way BACK over there?"

Firewall let out a sigh. "Yes... I do. But I still think this is a terrible idea."

"Our ideas are always terrible." Mute chuckled. "Why else do you think WE have to carry them out?"

**Best Laid Plans**

The group returned to Firewall's cave, where they tried to formulate a plan.

"We need to board that submarine before it sets sail." Firewall began. "The Ascension set up a rampart for them to get to and from the submarine's deck and thus, its entrance. But all they need to do is power up the engines and set sail, and we'll never catch it."

"So, we need to make a mad dash for the ramp then right?" Vi asked.

"It's not that simple." Firewall shook his head. "Aside from the guards that will be trying to gun us down as we approach, the submarine itself is outfitted with several armaments." He looked at Isaac. "Mute? Can you give them the rundown?"

Mute's avatar appeared next to Isaac, and took a sitting pose on his shoulder. Isaac rolled his eyes in response.

"Of course Firewall." Mute began, taking a relaxing pose on Isaac's shoulder with her legs crossed. "The RVMS Overseer-class submarine is armed with a single thirty-one cell VLS, generally outfitted with a mix of anti-ship and anti-surface guided missiles. It is also armed with four twenty-nine inch torpedo tubes and two six-inch, sixty-five caliber lightweight guns that are hidden below deck."

While Isaac and Firewall fully understood what Mute had said, the other four only exchanged confused glances.

"Uh... so... it's got some... guns?" Vi asked, scratching the top of her head with her massive gauntlet in confusion.

Isaac rolled his eyes. "English Mute..." He muttered

Mute let out a brief sigh. "The only weapons we'll need to worry about in there are the two lightweight guns, which fire rounds that are designed to puncture think plated hulls that are on naval warships."

"Uh..." Ezreal rubbed his forehead. "So... how fast do they fire?"

"Up to twenty rounds per minute." Mute stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Wait, wait wait wait!" Vi waved her hands in the air. "I'm all for a good fight, but we have to dodge all those shots from each of those guns, shots are meant to sink warships made of STEEL?"

"It's not exactly steel, its-" Mute began, but was cut off by Isaac.

"The bottom line, one shot from those guns, and you're done for." He summed up. "But if it was impossible, we wouldn't be doing this. Mute, go on."

"Thank you." Mute cleared her throat, looking graceful as she did so.

_She's enjoying this WAY too much... you're a god-damn AI you don't need to clear your throat!_

"The two guns are stored below decks, as they are useless when submerged. They take about seven seconds to be raised to deck level, and from there they take another three seconds to load their first round. So we have a ten second window before they are ready to fire. Since we will be approaching from behind the ship, they will be unable to hit us until we are parallel from the ships' midsection and up."

"So in short..." Firewall spoke up, "They can't hit us for a bit since we'll be approaching from the rear. Unfortunately the ramp is at the front of the ship, so we'll have to face the reality of those guns eventually. They likely won't raise the guns until we eliminate the first guards, since they might not perceive us as a threat until then. But we might still be too far back at the time, so we need to be ready to handle those guns by the time we reach the midsection."

"So, what do we do about the guards?" Caitlyn asked. "From what I've seen and heard, those guns from your world fire rounds at an incredible rate, we'll be gunned down before we even reach the midsection."

"That's where I come in." Firewall pointed to himself. "Like Archangel, I'm a meta human too. My power allows me to bring up a large one-way shield that'll be able to take any incoming fire from those assault rifles." He paused. "But I'm not willing to beat that my shield can block those rounds from those deck guns."

Isaac nodded. "Hopefully we won't have to deal with that problem. Since the shield is one way we can fire back from behind him." Isaac nodded back to the others, who all nodded in return. _They understand that part at least_.

"What about magic? Can we fire that from behind the shield?" Vega asked.

_Damn... good question... we've never tested that..._

"Wait... what?" It seemed to be Firewall's turn to be confused. "Magic? Don't ask stupid questions! There's no such thing!" He waved his hand around.

_Oh..._ Isaac exchanged a look with Mute, who was still on his shoulder. She shrugged in response. "He's been on a submarine and in a cave ever since he came here, he won't know." Mute muttered to Isaac quietly.

"What do you mean no such thing?" Vega asked, raising his hand, and a flame sparked to life in his hand.

Firewall took a step back. "What the hell?!" He half shouted, before turning to Isaac. "Archangel, you never mentioned that there metas!"

"No! Were not-" Vega started, but Isaac cut him off.

"Firewall, listen. There not meta-humans, and yes... I was sceptical of it too at first, hell I still am, but Mute's scans confirmed it. Its... magic. Or something like it." Isaac tried to explain. Firewall just crossed his arms and turned his head to the side.

"I can't... I can't believe you bought that... but... Mute..." He stumbled.

_Forgot... this guy lives on logic more so then me..._

Caitlyn let out a sigh. "You people, from your world. Do you ALL require scientific evidence to explain every little thing? Or is it just your ability to process normality that is so deeply rooted?

"Firewall, we can debate this later." Mute interrupted. "For now, just refer to it as such to avoid confusion, I'll send you the data from my scans at a later date."

"I... ok..." Firewall shook his head. "Umm, where were we?"

"We were asking if magic, or whatever the hell you want to call it, would affect your shield?" Vega asked again.

"Well... we never... uh... tested that. So let's just go with no... umm... magic." Firewall fumbled with his words before nodding. Whether the nod was to them or himself, Isaac didn't know. "Yes. No magic lets go with that."

"Ok... so, what? Ezreal and I have to stand back and do nothing behind that shield?"

"Can either of you fire a gun?" Firewall asked.

"I've never tried..." Vega muttered.

"Never had to, I've got this." Ezreal shrugged, patting his single oversized gauntlet.

"Then yes, while we move up, nothing."

"Join the club..." Vi muttered with her hands on her hips. Her massive gauntlets would prevent her from firing anything.

"Its fine, I've got a plan for you two." Isaac said. "So let's go over this, clearly this time, Mute?"

Mute nodded. "First, we have to clear the tunnels of any possible Ascension threats. Once we reach the cavern, we'll be approaching from behind the submarine. The Ascension will likely have guards both on the surface of the submarine, and on the rocky pathway to the ramp that connects the submarine to the cave. The guards on the pathway will be the first priority for elimination, since we can't afford to be taking fire from two angles. After that, we'll focus on the guards and security on the submarine's deck."

"Why the guards on the paths first? Why not the ones on the submarine?" Vega asked.

"More Ascension troops and crew members may emerge from the submarine's hatch, and it would lead them out onto the deck. If we eliminated the guards aboard the submarine first, then tried to focus on the guards on the path, new troops may appear on the deck sending us back to square one."

"Oh..."

"There is also the possibility that the Ascension will bring out their elite shock troops during the approach and subsequent fights. These shock troopers will be both heavily armored and will likely be equipped with jetpacks, which allows them to fly. If these troopers appear, they will be the new priority targets."

"If there flying, they could try to fly around my shield." Firewall added. "If they GET behind us, feel fire to fire off... you magic... stuff."

Ezreal and Vega nodded.

"Best case scenario of course, is that once we eliminate the first guards, the Ascension crew will retreat to the safety of the submarine's interior, and try to bring their lightweight guns to take us out without any further causalities."

"Wait... THAT'S your best case scenario?!" Vi asked, her expression clearly showing her shock at that. "The guns that are meant to sink ships?!"

"The guns have a hundred-and-eighty degree range from the front, so all we need to do is stand farther and back and we'll be behind the firing arc. The guns are armored, so this is where the magic users and Archangel's dark matter come into play."

"Oh I get it!" Ezreal snapped his fingers. "We blow up the guns and prevent them from firing at us!"

Mute nodded. "Exactly. Should we be inside the firing arc, we'll have to act quickly. It would be in our favor if they bring them out first before we enter their range, but we have to be ready for the worst."

"Ok... so after we make it to the submarine... then what?" Vi asked.

"Once we are on top of the deck, it should be easier. The Ascension may attempt to stop us from getting inside by sending out more troops, but since we'll be fighting head on we can use the same strategy that we did on the approach. Once we clear the surface of all contact, we simply need to get to the main hatch and enter."

"What if they lock the door?" Vega asked.

"Why," Caitlyn started. "I do believe that is where our dear Vi comes in."

Vi grinned in response. "Can't be any harder then breaking into a safe." She laughed.

"Once we are inside the submarine, things will be a bit more... chaotic." Mute continued to explain the plan she had devised. "The interior of an Overseer-class is between one to three people wide, depending on the section. So fighting will be difficult. You must all be very careful not to inflict too much damage to the submarine itself, or we may have... problems."

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. "What kind of, problems?"

Firewall shrugged. "Anything from taking on water, sinking, explosions... you get the idea."

"Ah... yes."

"When we are inside." Mute continued. "We will split into two teams. Team alpha will head to the prison cells to rescue Jinx and anyone else held there. Team bravo will go down to the engine room and disable the ship's means of propulsion to prevent it from leaving the cavern. The key here is disable, NOT destroy. The submarine is powered by hydrogen cells, so best not to take any unnecessary risks."

"We won't need to worry about it submerging since it's got that hole on the side." Isaac stated. "The Ascension isn't going to risk flooding and sinking their own submarine just to stop six invaders."

"Seven." Mute added.

"You don't shoot guns." Isaac muttered, cutting her off.

"What if it DOES try to leave before we get aboard?" Ezreal asked.

"The submarine's cells will take time to charge the engine to be able to move. We will have enough time to board the ship, but we best not take our sweet time nonetheless. Should the ship get too far out to sea where we will be unable to return..." Mute tipped her head and smiled. "Well, I have a plan B..."

**Operation Start**

_Well, here we are..._ Isaac thought, leaning up against the rocky walls of the cave. Firewall had led them through the twisting tunnels and caves to reach the other side of the cavern where the submarine was. And now they had reached what Firewall had called, the last tunnel before the sub.

Only there was a problem. The Ascension had learned from Firewall's harassing that leaving this certain tunnel unattended was a poor idea. So they left a single small all-terrain robot with a camera to watch over it.

"So... now what?" Vi asked, her voice coming from behind Isaac. The entire team was now idling in the tunnel, with the camera bot on the other side of the rocky wall in the next tunnel.

Firewall, who was in front of Isaac, let out a light sigh. "Should've known they would've set something up in here... actually, I'm surprised it took them so long."

Isaac glanced over his shoulder. Right behind him was Caitlyn, gripping her sniper rifle. Right behind her was Vi, followed by Ezreal, and then Vega. Isaac was second in their single file line, right behind Firewall.

"Well, how are we going to deal with it?" Isaac tapped his comrade on the shoulder. _We could run past it, but it would show us all off to the Ascension and kill the element of surprise. We could blow it up, ruining the element of surprise but keeping our numbers a secret... or..._

Isaac bit his lip. In movies there was always a way around this sort of problem. Some remote hacker, some guy using some stupid trick to damage, distract, or destroy the camera without being seen, but in reality no such tricks ever worked.

_If we damaged or destroyed it the Ascension would notice the loss of signal. And distraction is out of the question, since rocks don't just throw themselves or randomly fall inside a cave..._

That left only one possible option. Isaac peered over Firewall's shoulder and saw that he was thinking the same thing. Sparks began to emit from Firewall's left gauntlet as he used another one of his powers.

Firewall turned his head to face Isaac. "For the record..." He said. "I still think this is a terrible idea."

Before Isaac could respond, Firewall rounded the corner and fired the EMP from his left hand. After a second pause, there was a loud static sound.

_Take the camera out with an EMP. Quick, and keeps our numbers a secret._

"Camera's down! Let's move! Let's move!" Firewall shouted, and the entire group stormed forwards.

_Here we go..._

_(**Author Notes: **Ok, it not as long as the usual chapter, but thats because this chapter was half-rushed (all done in the last five hours) to make the deadline I set up for my story. This is of course all thanks to my damn 4 page report homework for school. Anyways, tune in next week for an action packed chapter)_


End file.
